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Double Olympic medalist Alex Shackell has announced her commitment to swim for the Indiana Hoosiers beginning in the spring of 2026. She was originally committed to swim at Cal, but decommitted to stay home and train with the Carmel Swim Club.
The top ranked recruit in the girls’ class of 2025, her versatility and international achievements make her one of the most valuable female swimmers to matriculate to collegiate swimming this decade.
Besides the Carmel Swim Club, Shackell swims for Carmel High School, the 39-time state champions. Indiana University is about a 75 minute drive from Carmel.
She finished her high school career two weeks ago as the Indiana High School State Champion in the 100 yard fly, which she won all four years of her high school career. She also won the 50 free title in 2023 as a sophomore and 100 back in 2024 as a junior.
At the 2024 Olympic Trials, she earned her spot on the U.S. Olympic Team via a 2nd place finish in the 200 meter fly (2:06.69) and a 6th place finish in the 200 meter free (1:57.05).
At the Olympic Games, she finished 6th in the 200 fly, won a silver medal via a prelims leg of the American 800 free relay, and added a gold as a prelims leg of the 400 medley relay – a swim she got because the versatility of the American women’s team meant swimmers like Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass were able to swim multiple legs of that relay.
Shackell’s Best Times in Short Course Yards/Long Course Meters
| SCY | LCM | |
| 50 free | 21.71 | 25.24 |
| 100 free | 47.44 | 54.08 |
| 200 free | 1:42.28 | 1:56.70 |
| 500 free | 4:40.16 | — |
| 100 fly | 49.49 | 56.78 |
| 200 fly | 1:50.15 | 2:06.10 |
| 100 back | 51.63 | 1:01.18 |
| 200 back | 1:53.00 | — |
| 200 IM | 1:54.54 | 2:13.63 |
| 400 IM | 4:06.20 | 4:52.73 |
The Indiana women last week finished 2nd at the Big Ten Championships, but will graduate three of their four best scorers from that meet: Anna Peplowski, diver Skyler Liu, and Ching Hwee Gan.
While she can’t singlehandedly replace all of those points, her best times would currently rank her 5th in the 100 fly, 2nd in the 200 fly, and she will fill in the formidable relay gap left by the loss of Peplowski.
She joins a class that includes Canadian Laila Oravsky, Billie Blu Mondonedo, Kamile Zinis, Grace Hoeper, Liberty Clark, Luci Gutierrez, and Skylar Knowlton.
Shackell is part of a swimming dynasty. Her dad Nick Shackell, was a member of the NCAA Champion team at Auburn in 1997, where he was an 18-time All-American. He represented Great Britain at the 1996 Olympic Games. He also had five Commonwealth Games medals between 1994 and 1998.
Her mom, Ali (Hansen) Shackell, also swam at Auburn, where she was a three-time All-American.
Alex’s older brother Aaron was also a member of the Paris 2024 Olympic Team and began his college career at Cal before transferring to Texas and ultimately returning home to Carmel to train late last year. Her twin brother Andrew also swam at the 2024 US Olympic Trials and is committed to swim at Texas in the fall after also originally committing to Cal.
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Were the shackell parents known to a little nutty prior to a year ago?
I’ve committed to them too! I won’t actually swim, not moving to Indiana, and I have to buy my own sweatshirt but Ray and the Hoosiers I’m all in!
“Commits.”
Let’s hope so.
IU is blessed.
If she reads these comments I hope she remembers that only ugly people troll hot people don’t have the time too LMAO.
I wouldn’t even really call it trolling? Pretty light lol
If she reads these comments, then I hope she remembers to use both commas and the correct form of “to/two/too” because you clearly did not
Unfortunately she’s going to IU so…… 😉
to*
you missed a comma there too
I wonder what Chris Plumb thinks about this. I’ve heard rumors for years that he doesn’t like Ray and tries to steer Carmel swimmers away from IU.
As a long time fan of all IU sports, especially swimming, I always wondered why the elite swimmers of Carmel never seriously considered IU. I wholeheartedly support Alex in her decision and concurrently congratulate her. I hope this opens up a pipe line of future Carmel greats. Hooray.
I’ve only heard rumors and I’ve never even met Plumb, but I’ve been hearing the same rumor for nearly 15 years. I hope this opens the door to more of Carmel’s elite talent going to IU, but this “hybrid schedule” thing doesn’t sound promising.
Do we still consider Kayla Han a Carmel swimmer even though she was only there for a year?
I do t know but I wish she would either go to college or not. There is a lot more to college growth than swimming and class work. The social aspect is huge and frankly NCAA should not allow the “hybrid” stuff. You are a student there or you are not.
I don’t blame her or anyone else for wanting to stay close to home but at least take the full next step not just dip a toe in and see what you think. Maybe it will work out and she will go full time 2nd semester. I just wish she could enjoy all the good things at college not related to the sports and learning side of it too.
Bro he swam at IU
Leon has been with Australia longer than shackells have trained with a college team
It’s kind of wild but if this post were to happen about a year and a half ago, the discourse in this comment section would’ve been about her staying close to home and being the biggest in state pickup Indiana has ever gotten.
Now it’s almost entirely about how long she will swim there before her parents decide they’ve had enough. Amazing how much the narrative has changed in that time period.
I think collectively the family has committed to 9 different plans since then.
Why would she start in spring, out of interest? Won’t she miss out of quite a lot of freshman stuff? Plus it’s not like it’s right after an Olympic year when people typically want a bigger break. Obviously her choice, but just curious.
Watched KG do it successfully?
KG literally hadn’t decided about college pre-Olympics. This gives A Shackell about a year.
probably missed the application deadline, as it was feb 1
Athletes can get into schools pretty much right up until the start of classes, probably was a different reason