Over the next few days, we’ll be taking a closer look at how NCAA teams stacked up here in Rio. That’ll include breaking the medal table further to reflect the impact of those who participated in the 2015-2016 season, those who redshirted, and those who deferred for a year.
However, over the course of the week, we’ve been keeping track of medalists and finalists who competed with, or will compete with, a NCAA team in 2016. As this is designed to give a snapshot of how the top schools are represented in Rio, we’re using a pretty wide definition of who will count in our hypothetical medal tables. So, we’re including swimmers who chose to sit out this past NCAA season and redshirt, those who chose to defer matriculation for a year and will start in this fall, and those who have just graduated. Again, the intent is not to “assign credit” to a particular coach or program. We’re well aware that NCAP’s Bruce Gemmell coaches Katie Ledecky, not Stanford coach Greg Meehan. Rather, we’re trying to give a quick snapshot of major college programs by seeing how swimmers who have competed for them recently, or will be competing this fall, fared on the swimming world’s biggest stage.
Gold Medalists
- Katie Ledecky, Stanford, 400 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle, 4×200 Free Relay, & 800 Freestyle
- Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 4×100 Freestyle Relay & 4×100 Medley Relay (Prelims)
- Ryan Held, NC State, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
- Blake Pieroni, Indiana, 4×100 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Ryan Murphy, California, 100 Back, 200 Back, & 4×100 Medley Relay
- Lilly King, Indiana, 100 Breast & 4×100 Medley Relay
- Townley Haas, Texas, 4×200 Freestyle Relay
- Clark Smith, Texas, 4×200 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Jack Conger, Texas, 4×200 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Gunnar Bentz, Georgia, 4×200 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Leah Smith, Virginia, 4×200 Freestyle Relay
- Cierra Runge, Wisconsin, 4×200 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Simone Manuel, Stanford, 100 Freestyle & 4×100 Medley Relay
- Joseph Schooling, Texas, 100 Fly
- Kathleen Baker, California, 4×100 Medley Relay
- Olivia Smoliga, Georiga, 4×100 Medley Relay (Prelims)
- Kelsi Worrell, Louisville, 4×100 Medley Relay (Prelims)
- Abbey Weitzeil, California, 4×100 Medley Relay (Prelims)
Silver Medalists
- Chase Kalisz, Georgia, 400 IM
- Katie Ledecky, Stanford, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
- Simone Manuel, Stanford, 4×100 Freestyle Relay & 50 Freestyle
- Lia Neal, Stanford, 4×100 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
- Abbey Weitzeil, California, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
- Kathleen Baker, California, 100 Back
- Josh Prenot, California, 200 Breast
Bronze Medalists
- Leah Smith, Virginia, 400 Freestyle
- Chantal van Landeghem, Georgia, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
- Brittany MacLean, Georiga, 4×200 Freestyle Relay
- Kennedy Goss, Indiana, 4×200 Freestyle Relay (Prelims)
Other Finalists
- Santo Condorelli, USC, 4×100 Freestyle Relay & 100 Free
- Beryl Gastaldello, Texas A&M, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
- Jay Litherland, Georgia, 400 IM
- Brittany MacLean, Georgia, 400 Freestyle
- Townley Haas, Texas, 200 Freestyle
- Olivia Smoligia, Georgia, 100 Back
- Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 100 Freestyle
- Hali Flickinger, Georgia, 200 Fly
- Sydney Pickrem, Texas A&M, 200 IM
- Jacob Pebley, California, 200 Back
- Abbey Weitzeil, California, 100 Freestyle
- Simonas Bilis, NC State, 50 Freestyle
- Kierra Smith, Minneosta, 200 Breast
- Leah Smith, Virginia, 800 Freestyle
- Jordan Wilimovsky, Northwestern, 1500 Freestyle
Medal Count by School
- Stanford: 6/4/0 = 10 total
- California: 5/3/0 = 8 total
- Texas: 4/0/0 = 4 total
- Indiana: 3/0/1 = 4 total
- Georgia: 2/1/2 = 5 total
- Florida: 2/0/0 = 2 total
- Virginia: 1/0/1 = 2 total
- NC State: 1/0/0 = 1 total
- Wisconsin: 1/0/0 = 1 total
- Louisville: 1/0/0 = 1 total
If you see we’ve missed anyone who has swam for a college team in 2016, or will be coming off of a redshirt or deferral and will swimming this fall, please let us know, and we’ll add them to the list.
Interesting to see virtually all of Stanford’s medals come from their female swimmers while Cal has a mix of their medal swims from both their male/female swimmers. Not to bash or criticize the Stanford men, but worth noting the relative imbalance in how Stanford men vs. women are/have been performing recently.
To affiliate Ledecky and Abbey with their prospective schools because they might attend (still hard to believe Ledecky will go) is a disservice to their club coaches and teams. Yes, i read the article and do not agree the aforementioned should be included despite the criteria.
The author explained the reason for affiliation and disclaimer. Their club coaches get full credit and no one is saying otherwise. It is nice to see associations even if it is “incoming freshman”.
Louise Hansson, Sweden, USC, Finals with Relays for Sweden
I would love to see how many Olympic swimmers live and train in the US, while competing for other countries. Get an idea how special US swimming, training, culture is- and the impact on the global swimming community.
How about a club team analysis? Many of these swimmers aren’t current NCAA swimmers — either haven’t gone yet (Ledecky) or so far past it, it’s irrelevant (Lochte). Also, what about foreign swimmers currently swimming in US colleges.
PowerPlay – while that would be fun, it’s a nightmare trying to tie swimmers to clubs. Most of them are representing clubs that they’re not training with, and both sides will pitch a fit if they’re not given top billing.
Amen PowerPlay.
Be nice to see the list of all entrants not just medalists and finalists, and corresponding NCAA schools they attended. This way we can see how the NCAA system impacts the growth and availability of the sport. Furthur breakdown to compare fully funded programs vs others. Previous mid-major Old Dominion had at least one swimmer, as did UMBC both swimmers are foreigners who went back and strengthed their National Federations. What about the others?
No college mentioned for these 2 names.
Beryl Gastaldello, 4×100 Freestyle Relay
Jay Litherland, 400 IM
Texas A&M and Georgia I believe.
Abbey is not Cal… Yet
Did you read the article at all
Yes, I did. She is under a different coach and Katie.
Are you SURE you read the article?
I think maybe some would like to see only those who benefitted (or potentially didn’t) from collegiate training, not redshirted. Different article though! 🙂 But with this list of contenders it is going to be an exciting season in college swimming.
I want the true coaches of these athletes to be recognized.