USA Swimming National Teamer Madison Kennedy is headed across the country to join the SwimMAC Carolina Team Elite, according to a press-release. Kennedy is currently a member of the USA National Team in the 50 free, and recently won a bronze medal at the 2011 Pan Am Games in the 50 free and a gold as part of the 400 free relay team.
This is a bit of a boon for SwimMAC, as Kennedy is coming from a Teri-McKeever-coached Cal program that is as hot as any in the country right now.
The country’s top female sprinters are still searching for a place to sort of congregate and collaborate, like the men have found at places like Cal and SwimMAC. We saw a similar move with Kara Lynn Joyce’s move to the Colorado Stars.
SwimMAC makes as much sense as anywhere, given how much success they’ve had with their male sprinters (Josh Schneider, Cullen Jones, Nick Brunelli, and to some extent Tim Phillips and Davis Tarwater).
Full press release is below.
December 5, 2011- USA National Team athlete Madison Kennedy becomes the sixth swimmer to join Team Elite and Coach David Marsh in the last year as she prepares for the 2012 Olympic Games.
“I was lucky enough to spend time with David and a few members of Team Elite at the National Team training camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Colo. I wasn’t looking to switch teams when I first met David, but his energy and rapt attention to detail caught me completely off guard,” said Kennedy about choosing to swim for Team Elite.
“Given my previous training background, I believe that my potential is in need of the hearty shove in the right direction that Team Elite can give me.”
The Avon, Conn. native and 2010 graduate of California University most recently won two medals at the 2011 Pan American Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Kennedy picked up a gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay as the lead leg on the record-setting USA squad. She added a bronze a few days later in the 50-meter free.
Like her Team Elite peers, Kennedy’s immediate goal is to make the USA Olympic team. She believes working with Marsh and Assistant Coach Peter Verhoef will give her a stronger chance of achieving her dream.
“He (David Marsh) happily, and without being asked, gave me more technical advice then I had received in months. David and Peter (Verhoef) are willing to assist and advise any athlete, no matter the stroke or current affiliation. I find that David’s desire to make every athlete better, to give whatever he can to elevate the sport, transcends boundaries in a way that is lost on other coaches.”
“It is important to be supported and believed in during your journey, to whatever level you choose. A poor performance can either be pouted over or taken as a learning experience, and having someone you trust to guide you is essential to keep moving in the direction of your dreams.”
As much as Kennedy is focused on the Olympic Trials, she also knows she can be an influence on the age group swimmers at SwimMAC. “I hope I can bring even the tiniest bit of inspiration and excitement to them.”
“Experiences with my home club team in Connecticut remain in my memory as some of the happiest moments in life. My coaches and teammates gave me such a gift in the years that I spent with them and I consider it a privilege to be able to be a part of that for someone else.”
When you say few true successes, what exactly are you looking for? Every US swimmer that went to Worlds for a pool event and trained at Gator with the exception of one (Teresa Crippen) left with a gold medal. Vanderkaay (800 free relay – finals), Lochte (200/400 IM, 200 Back, 200 Free, 800 free relay), Dwyer (800 free relay – prelims) Beisel (400 IM), Knutson (800 free relay – finals). I’d say that 5 out of 6 of your swimmers leaving Shanghai with gold is a pretty enviable result for any program.
Some good points but I also dont think you can ignore the fact that we are 6 months out from trials and for some athletes, their is a sense of urgency and desperation. I actually think it is a good move for her,swimming is such a mental sport that sometimes you just need a fresh approach. Also coaching women and balancing their egos is a whole different ball game. I remeber hearing an interviw with the legendary Jon Urbanchek where he talked about how it took some effort to arrange sets with some of his female swimmers so they are not racing the same person everyday.
And rhere is no such thing as a one size fits all program.… Read more »
Madison hasn’t been training at Cal for several months and definitely since before the summer. She and Teri split a ways back and she has been training on her own in the Bay Area
It does seem like Kennedy is having some egotistical issues at Cal and feeling overlooked. As far as I can tell, the postgrads and collegiate swimmers are quite intertwined, and McKeever probably pays more attention to the collegiate swimmers (that’s her job) and to the bigger names like Coughlin and Vollmer. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see Kennedy’s swimming improving much since she’s rather old and is a pure sprinter. She dropped a lot transferring to Cal, but since graduation she hasn’t been really improving.
For the SwimMAC group, I don’t think there’s a large enough sample size to make an accurate judgement. All of the swimmers are unusual cases: Schnieder started swimming late, Lawrence traveled there to… Read more »
Well that’s a very interesting last point Chris. The trends seem to fit the concept…maybe something to keep an eye on going forward.
You guys are looking way to deep into this. Sometimes swimmers need a change.
Exactly Gosharks. She sounds like a spoiled kid. Terri may not coddle her swimmers, or give them un-needed advice (for the sake of “tweaking”) — but her swimmers swim faster than most. Compare the coach’s records! And yes, she did improve under Terri, which is more than many of the SwimMac postgrads can say. SwimMac would have been smart not to take her.
Am I reading too much into it, or is Madison Kennedy saying too much about this switch.
In two years at Cal, her times dropped from 22.4/49.1/1:50+ to 21.8/48.1/1:45.7. Pretty dramatic improvements, yet she is sort of bad-mouthing Teri McKeever.
“He (David Marsh) happily, and without being asked, gave me more technical advice then I had received in months.”
“and having someone you trust to guide you is essential”
Did she not trust McKeever? (Because Kennedy swims the same events as Coughlin and Vollmer?) I just don’t really think its necessary to release a statement at all, no less one in which you indirectly bash your previous team.
Braden, it would be great if you could get some information regarding the new Colorado Stars swim center. Except for I small article in a local newspaper, information is hard to find. Some of us thought it was to be another Center of Excellence but we were obviously wrong as they are going away. Not sure if that is good or bad.
Colswim – interesting point about Rio and altitude training. I was sort of under the impression that because the Olympic venues are right on the coast, that they would be “sea level” (as compared to the more inland mountains) and tha altitude wouldn’t be as much of a factor, but I’ve contacted a Brazilian friend to get his thoughts on that theory.
Either way, I think what people are starting to pull out of Missy Franklin’s training is the huge benefits that can come from training in high altitude. And not just on occasional 3-week training trips, but breathing, sleeping, eating, walking to the pool, training in the environment all year round. I think you could be very right about… Read more »