USA Swimming has announced its head coaches for the 2020 U.S. Olympic swimming team: Cal’s Dave Durden for the men and Stanford’s Greg Meehan for the women.
The national governing body announced the names in a conference call Monday.
Durden was an assistant with the men’s Olympic team in 2016, but this will be his first time as head coach. Heading up the men’s program at the University of California, Durden has guided some of Team USA’s top swimmers, both in the collegiate ranks and as pros. His team had an especially outstanding summer of 2018. Ryan Murphy was one of the few American men to overperform at both U.S. Nationals and Pan Pacs, and is among the best backstrokers in the world. Veteran sprinter Nathan Adrian continues to be among the nation’s best, and Durden’s Cal men had 11 other swimmers qualify for 2019 summer international travel teams.
Meehan has coached several of the top American female swimmers for the past few years, to great success. He’s the coach of Katie Ledecky, who still remains the best distance swimmer on the planet by a country mile, and arguably the top female swimmer overall, regardless of event. Meehan has also coached world and Olympic champion sprinter Simone Manuel and veteran Olympian Lia Neal. Maybe Meehan’s most impressive feat of coaching was helping Ella Eastin make Pan Pacs and World University Games despite having mono, a goal achieved through a gutsy decision to scratch a number of top events to rest up for one final qualifying shot in the 200 IM.
Meehan was also an assistant on the 2016 Olympic coaching staff, and this will be his first bid as head coach. Durden and Meehan previously coached together at Cal before Meehan took the Stanford job.
The two represent the youngest Olympic head coaching staff in recent memory. Both are currently 42 and will be 44 when the 2020 Olympics take place. No other Olympic head swim coaches since 2000 have been under 50 years old. Here’s a look at previous Olympic head coaches and their age as of those Olympic Games:
| Men’s Coach | Age | Olympics | Age | Women’s Coach |
| Dave Durden | 44 | 2020 | 44 | Greg Meehan |
| Bob Bowman | 51 | 2016 | 58 | David Marsh |
| Gregg Troy | 62 | 2012 | 50 | Teri McKeever |
| Eddie Reese | 67 | 2008 | 56 | Jack Bauerle |
| Eddie Reese | 63 | 2004 | 54 | Mark Schubert |
| Mark Schubert | 50 | 2000 | 57 | Richard Quick |
So Meehan currently has Ledecky, Manuel, and Ruck in his Stanford training group…Ruck will compete for Canada in 2020 and likely versus both Ledecky (200 FREE) and Manuel (50 & 100 FREE). It must be fun to watch the Stanford women train these days!
Stan Tinkham 1956 Head Coach Women was 24 years old. Walter Reed Swim Club in Washington.
There were 4 Walter Reed Swimmers out of a total of 12 on the team.
FYI Doc was 43 when he was Head Coach in 1964.
Go Vols
Agree with the choices. Who is the who making the decision? Was the NAt coach with a steering committee recommendations. Is it still a committee? Olympic coaches have always been announced before trials going waaaaay back. Miss when elected at Conv. By International committee In front of audience by 50 people mostly coaches but not all and the staff was chosen then. Coaches have been elected 2 years in advance and then Pan-Am coaches and stall a year in advance. The time when club coaches were a equal part of the action.. Of course some of the top swimmers were younger then.
when will the assistant coaches be announced?
At the end of Trials after seeing what coaches have the the most swimmers going with the best chances of medalling at the Olympics.
They’ve always been named before Trials, but this year is earlier than in the past. My hunch is that this has to do with the redesigned role of National Team Director and therefore having value in getting more ‘coach’ input earlier in the process.
Stanford men’s coach Skip Kennedy and women’s coach Richard Quick were named 1996 Oly head coaches in November, 1994 — a bit earlier in the cycle than today’s announcement. It was a big deal for Stanford fans at the time. Both coaches were coming off three-peat NCAA championships and both had been assistants in previous Olys as well (Kenny ‘84, ‘88; Quick: ‘84, ‘88, ‘92)
Just curious……..do the USA head coaches and assistants receive a stipend for coaching the team or is it strictly volunteer/resume building?