The Arizona Wildcats have jumped into the trend of hiring big-name swimmers as volunteer assistant coaches this fall, as Olympic Champion Matt Grevers will be added to their staff pending the finalization of his paperwork.
In Grevers’ case, he will continue to train with the Wildcats while also contributing as a coach.
Grevers was an undergraduate at Northwestern, but soon after completing his college eligibility came to Tucson to train with Tucson Ford. During that time, he made two U.S. Olympic Teams, including taking his first individual gold medal in London in the 100 backstroke. Thanks to his best swim, at June’s Olympic Trials, Grevers is now the 2nd-fastest 100 backstroker in history behind only Aaron Peirsol.
Altogether, he has 6 Olympic medals: 4 gold and 2 silvers. Aside from consecutive gold medals on medley relays (one from prelims, one from finals), he’s also been a part of the last two American 400 free relays.
Though coaches shan’t be pigeonholed into coaching only what they’re best at, even these volunteer assistants can have a lot of recruiting power in addition to their knowledge of the sport. Last season, Arizona had one of the best backstroke duos in the country in Cory Chitwood and Mitchell Friedemann, but with Chitwood’s eligibility up, they could use another big-time backstroker or two to fill out the group. The possibility of training with and under one of the best ever, while he’s still achieving peak performances, could be tempting in the next few classes.
Great news for the Wildcats – Matt is a terrific person who will be a HUGE asset to the team.
ANy confirmations on what ’12 Olympians are retiring or have retired besides Phelps