As reported earlier today, Katie Ledecky will be moving from her longtime home of Stanford under head coach Greg Meehan to the University of Florida, where she will train and volunteer coach under head coach Anthony Nesty. SwimSwam’s Braden Keith, Torrey Hart, and I discuss what this move means for Ledecky’s career, Nesty’s notoriety as a head coach, and the potential for Florida’s women’s program on the collegiate and post-grad side.
Reported by James Sutherland.
Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky is headed east to train at the University of Florida, she announced on Instagram Wednesday morning.
Ledecky says she will train under Florida head coach Anthony Nesty and the “outstanding mid-distance and distance training group there” in preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Ledecky has been training at Stanford University under coach Greg Meehan since beginning her freshman season of college there in 2016.
Ledecky wrote the following on Instagram, adding that being closer to family was a factor in her decision:
“Stanford has been my second home for the last five years. It will always have a special place in my heart. Having completed my college degree this year, I am moving east to be closer to home and family.
I’ve decided to train at the University of Florida with Coach Anthony Nesty and the outstanding mid-distance and distance training group there. I’m looking forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the next phase of my swimming career.
My years at Stanford have been nothing short of incredible. I’m so grateful for my coach Greg Meehan, as well as my teammates, professors, friends and everyone in the larger Palo Alto/Menlo Park area who have supported me through these years.”
Ledecky will also serve as a volunteer assistant coach with the program. It’s not uncommon for active Olympians to join coaching staffs as volunteer assistants, as this allows them greater latitude to travel and train with teams that would not necessarily be afforded to them as just a post-graduate trainee.
Katie is either way past prime, or needed a change in coaching.
She is so good that she is still on top, but way off her best times, specially in the longer distances.
I think that Meehan breathed a sigh of relief. Ledecky was too much for him. At the very beginning of getting her on the team after Katie’s phenomenal performances in Rio he said that he doesn’t know what he can do to make Ledecky better. And he didn’t. The Stanford team was so packed at that time that he didn’t even need the swimmer of such caliber to win NCAA. He was preoccupied with the Stanford’s success and she was all by herself. When she made the only noticeable race making a world record at 1500 in 2018 being on the Market for sponsorship she said jokingly that don’t say Greg how I trained for it after NCAA. But it… Read more »
Gregg Meehan puts me off a little bit
i’m glad i’m not the only one
Yes, good move for sure. Greg did very little for her from an *improvement* perspective. Now, let’s hope she follows this with a move away from TYR and those ill-fitting suits!
TYR “suits” Ledecky just fine with all the $$$$ they’re paying her.
No income tax…plus Nesty is the man!
Florida has no state income tax, no local income taxes – compare that to California. Why do you think Tom Brady ended up in Florida? Katie is reported to earn $7million a year from TYR – Cal has a 12% state income tax and Palo Alto a 8% city income tax – so the move to Florida will save here $1.4 M a year minimum
Katie is not reported to earn $7 million a year from TYR, even though that’s what the first pre-loaded result on Google says. It was a $7 million total contract total that runs for 6 years from June through the 2024 Olympics.
There is no income tax administered by Palo Alto. It’s not 12% state income tax “and” 8% Palo Alto city income tax. When you’re googling this and finding the “8%,” that’s some weird morphing/google scraping of an estimation of the application of state income tax and/or sales tax. In fact, California’s only local income tax is a payroll tax in San Francisco.
The 12% is a graduated income tax, meaning she only pays (12.3%) on income above ~$560,000.… Read more »
Braden looking to moonlight in the SALT group at Ernst and young.
No.
To answer the question in the headline, Yes!
So what happens when Kieran and Finke graduate? Do they have to move to the pro group with Troy, or can that training group stay together under Nesty?