USA Swimming has announced a roster of 24 for their 11th Annual National Open Water Select Camp, set to be held from June 6-10 at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
The camp is used to provide up-and-coming American distance swimmers with an educational and motivational experience. The camp is a key step as athletes look to transition from the pool to open water, and hopefully eventually representing the U.S. internationally.
“National Open Water Select Camp plays a key role in strengthening Team USA’s open water team at the international level,” said USA Swimming Club Development Managing Director, Pat Hogan. “Elite distance swimmers already have the swimming ability, but this camp encourages athletes to explore open water swimming as an additional option to their current pool training to potentially represent the U.S. in international competition.”
Athletes will have various workouts in the pool, lake, and ocean, and will also get education sessions on things like open water strategies, nutrition, recovery and technique from open water coaches. The camp will run for four days.
The swimmers were selected based on times from the 2016 season; eight men and eight women were chosen using the top 1500 times of the year, while four men and four women were selected based on the results of the 2016 5-kilometer National Open Water Championships.
Staff for the camp include:
- Head Coach: Grant Holicky (Boulder, Colo./RallySport Aquatics)
- Head Manager: Aaron Mahaney (Buffalo, N.Y.)
- Assistant Manager: Kaitlin Pawlowicz (Arlington, Va./Arlington Aquatic Club)
- Assistant Coach: Nick Graves (Atlanta, Ga./Dynamo Swim Club)
- Assistant Coach: Michele Lowry (Salt Lake City, Utah/Swim Utah)
- Assistant Coach: Julie Wessler (Lemont, Ill. /Lemont Park District Dolphins)
- Assistant Coach: John Payne (Cary, N.C. /TAC Titans)
The full roster of 24 can be found here. Five of the athletes selected are set to compete at Open Water Nationals this weekend. Mary Margaret Banick, Kaitlynn Sims and Cathryn Salladin are entered in both the women’s 5K and 10K events, while McKenzee Gordon is just entered in the 5K.
For the men, Tyler Jones is the only athlete selected to the camp who is slated to compete in Castaic Lake this weekend. He’s entered in the men’s 5 and 10K.