Is the Gator Swim Club a country? “Gator Nation”? Technically no, but a large portion of Gregg Troy’s international contingent are partaking this week in their own pre-Olympic training camp in Dublin, Ireland under the tutelage of Anthony Nesty – himself a former Olympic Champion.
The lineup for this mini-camp is 10-strong, and will have different athletes departing to join their national teams at various times. It includes a big portion of Florida’s post-grad group:
- Sarah Bateman (Iceland)
- Alejandro Gomez (Venezuela)
- Yanel Pinto (Venezuela)
- Andreina Pinto (Venezuela)
- Arkady Vyatchanin (Russia)
- Marcin Cieslak (Poland)
- Sara Lajneff (Tunisia)
- Brett Fraser (Cayman Islands)
- Shaune Fraser (Cayman Islands)
Nesty and his counterpart Martin Wilby have been entrusted with a huge amount of additional responsibility this season, both with the college swimmers and the post-grads, as Troy has tended to his duties as the U.S. Olympic Team coach, and this camp is the ultimate sign of faith.
Way to go Sarah, so proud of you and all the other Gator Olympians! You sure do swim with an elite bunch. I hope you all are enjoying Ireland. Can’t wait to watch you all in the Olympics, the countdown is on!
Very proud of our Golden boy, Anthony Nesty from Suriname.
Previous to the meet looks very nice, I want to see after the meet and their results. I hope will not be the same happens with the “golden class” UF received this year.
When you realize these swimmers are used to training together with Ryan Locthe,PVK,Connor Dwyer, Beisel, Crippen.and so many more, they are getting what they need and they have confidence in their coaches.These swimmers have the utmost respect for Coach Troy, CoachNesty, Coach Wilby, Coah Martindale, and Coach Jungbluth.These coaches have seen them get this far, so why mess with Success!
In addition, these swimmers all work to support each other and are an incredibly close team.
It was awful listening to Rowdy Gaines talk down about them on NBC.Coach Troy has proven his techniques work time and time again…
interesting to see that vyatchanin is going to this camp instead of the russian camp given that russia is traditionally a strong swimming country. while the other swimmers are from countries with relatively small olympic contingents he is not. it’d be interesting to know how the russian swimming federation views him choosing to prepare here instead of with the rest of the russian team.
Sarra Lajnef is Tunisian.