US National Team member Jack Conger has moved cross-state to join Sergio Lopez‘s PRVT training group based at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center.
PRVT, which includes pros, post-grads, and a handful of swimmers deferring the start of their college careers because of the pandemic, is led by Lopez, who is also the head coach at Virginia Tech.
Conger had been training as part of a very-small post-grad group at the University of Virginia since late 2018. After his departure, Catie DeLoof is the only pro training in Charlottesville – she moved there in August.
At Virginia Tech, he’ll be reunited with his former University of Texas teammate, and NCAA butterfly rival, Joseph Schooling.
The group has assembled a deep roster of butterfly talent, including Farida Osman and Hokie undergraduate Youssef Ramadan: the fastest freshman 100 butterflier in NCAA history.
The 26-year old Conger was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 2016, where he won a gold medal as a prelims leg on the American 800 free relay. His 1:45.73 split on that relay was the Americans’ fastest prelims leg.
He is also the current fastest man ever in the 200 yard butterfly thanks to a 1:37.35 he swam to win the 2017 NCAA Championship in the event.
As a collegiate swimmer at the University of Texas, he was a 10-time NCAA Champion, including the 1 individual title in the 200 fly.
Conger has raced individually at each of the last two World Championships. He finished 5th in the 200 fly at the 2017 World Championships and 11th in the 100 fly at the 2019 World Championships. He also won 3 minor medals as a member of American relays across those two World Championship events.
Conger last raced in November at the U.S. Open site in Richmond. There he swam 23.21 in the 50 free, 50.64 in the 100 free, and 53.33 in the 100 fly. His highest overall placement among combined results was 14th in the 100 fly.
Next week’s ISCA International Senior Cup is expected to be Conger’s first meet since moving his training base. A number of his PRVT teammates will be racing there as well.
Yo this guy hasn’t been in a swimswam article in a looooong time
PV=nRT, I am surpised Sergio named a pro group after the ideal gas law
Jack – It aint the training group or the coach.
Are you suggesting he’s hard to coach, awkward, opinionated with how he is?
Don’t think it helps with 100/200free and fly.
He has never been able to peak for all four events at the same time. One even will be hot and another off – may have nothing to do with him leaving groups though.
Schooling and Conger were always at their best when the rage trained against each other.
You mean with Eddie.
go hokies
Heard he got kicked out of UVA’s group. Wonder why. Godspeed
Heard he was essentially asked to leave the UT pro group as well. Starting to seem like it may not be about the training
I heard the same thing about the UT group but then apparently it wasn’t like that. Not sure though
Great insight
Not the case at all at UT
Wait does anyone know anything about this?
Yea, he was asked to leave UVa’s training group. It wasn’t anything truly ‘bad’ on his part, but if I were DeSorbo I also would’ve kicked him out after what happened.
What happened??
Heard from who
ouija.
Wrong on all accounts. Not kicked out or asked to leave any training groups. He is a professional swimmer trying to be at the top of his game. See ya in the pool where the real talking is done
It always made me angry that he wasn’t on the finals relay. Instead we had Lochte split 1:46. They still won the gold, but he is a clutch swimmer who couldve given them a shot at the WR
Agreed. Conger earned a finals slot. Lochte was handed it based on “rep”. Hopefully it fuels Conger to greater heights this time round. rooting for him
Behave.
Lochte was faster in prelims.
Conger should of been on the final team but they let Phelps swim to boost his medal count. Phelps hadn’t been faster than 1.48 since 2012.
Lochte was 1.45 in 2015 and out split conger by 0.2 in the heat relay, how were the US coaches to know a proven vet like Lochte would go slower in the final.
He was on that team every year from 2004.
Phelps or Conger was the choice and Bowman had the say, hating ok Lochte is low. Bowman’s ego why Conger got dropped.
Lochte was not faster in the heats. He swam 1:45:80 vs. Conger’s 1:45:73.
But I guess you aren’t about to let the facts get in the way of your argument!
I think he is correct. USA swimming subtracts relays reaction times so people don’t push it too much to get a faster time to earn the spot in finals. Lochte was faster when you do this. Whether or not they should do this is debatable, but they do.
FYI: Lochte actually “swam” faster. When they compare splits, they remove the relay exchange — so as to not encourage the prelim swimmer so go max-risk on the exchange to improve their split time and thereby risk DQ’ing the relay.
We just gonna ignore the fact that MP ended up splitting 1:45.2?
Yes because that doesn’t prove their point
It’s not great is it. Ok it’s faster than Lochte swam, yet you can’t know that before hand.
Basically Bowman had no faith in Conger going 1.44 which I think he would gone given the chance.
Just because MP did in fact split a fast time, it doesn’t mean that the actual decision making process was a good one.
This actually sets a dangerous precedent, where it doesn’t matter who earned their spot on the finals through times, coaches are still gonna choose who they have ‘faith’ in… Sounds a little messed up to me
Agree 100%
doubting the GOAT is a pointless exercise
This didn’t “set” a precedent. It has always been the coaches’ discretion. You can find plenty of examples over the years like this. Anyone remember Gary Hall being upset in 2004 about being left of the finals relay?
Do you think Conger would’ve split 1:43.9?
I’m not sure I agree that he’s really proven that he is a clutch swimmer. Can you name an example where he had to raise his game up under pressure?
Switching up training groups with a few months to go before trials is pretty bold. Hope it works out for him
Bold play Cotton, let’s see how it works out for him.