Eight-time Olympic swim coach Mark Schubert is heading to American Renaissance Academy, a private K-12 school on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, following his latest stint leading a pro group with The Swim Team (TST) based out of Orange County, California.
Schubert recently met with American Renaissance Academy owners, toured their weight room and Kapolei Aquatics Center featuring a 50-meter pool, and was immediately sold. The 75-year-old distance guru bought a condo in the southwest corner of Oahu that same day.
According to Schubert, “three or four” families from TST are following him out to American Renaissance Academy. He also hopes that Paris 2024 Olympian David Johnston will join him in Oahu after he completes the 2024-25 season at the University of Texas. Schubert envisions his Hawaii training group becoming a hub for swimmers from Korea, Japan, and China as well as the United States given its mid-Pacific Ocean location between Asia and America.
Schubert is naming his latest pro group, “Podium Swim Club.” He’ll start his new role next month.
Schubert launched TST in connection with Saddleback El Toro Swim Team in 2021 after retiring from nearby Mission Viejo. He took a temporary leave of absence in 2022 to coach Chinese swimmers abroad. His longtime assistant, Fernando Soraggi, is also coming with him from California to Hawaii.
“I’m really excited and I think this a great opportunity,” said Schubert, whose new home will be five minutes from the beach.
Schubert’s time at TST came to an end this past summer after a disagreement with club management over money. He says he gave up six months of salary under the impression it would be distributed among assistants, but that arrangement never came to fruition. Sprint specialist Brett Hawke was hired as his replacement last month.
Schubert was the USA Swimming National Team head coach from 2006 until 2010. He was also previously the head coach at USC and the University of Texas. He served as a member of the US Olympic Team staff at the 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games. He also led the Mission Viejo Nadadores to nine national team titles in his first stint with the club, and coached swimmers like Janet Evans, Shirley Babashoff, Brian Goodell, Mike O’Brien, Sippy Woodhead, Kaitlin Sandeno, Jessica Hardy, Larsen Jensen, Erik Vendt, Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko, Ous Mellouli, and Dara Torres.
Schubert lasted all of 6 months in Hawaii! https://staging2.swimswam.com/mark-schubert-moving-to-hawaii-to-start-new-pro-swimming-group/
You know for real coaches coaching is life. So just continue to getterdone and develop more history. It’s not all about money like this case. It’s Fun to continue to getterdone
Love the people that use examples like this. “It’s not all about money” Passion for the work you do is a bonus, not an excuse to accept less pay. Imagine if someone rattled off “You know, for real teachers, teaching is life. It’s not all about money”.
I’m no Mark fan, or hater. I just believe that Mark would go away if somebody were doing it way better. That doesn’t seem to be the case.
^ agreed. Maybe he’s still coaching because he enjoys it 🤷♂️
We all have our critics, especially after 50 years on deck, but it’s a really small list who can match his results. Let’s start with 8x USA Olympic coach. The line starts on the right 😳
I’m no expert, but I don’t see anything wrong with Mark stretching his career out, as long as there are high level swimmers that think he is the best option for a distance program. What other coach is running a distance only pro group that has Marks record of accomplishments?
Bernd Berkhard in Germany.
The only example is in Germany? 👀 Keep doing what you are doing Mark, until we get a U.S. based program that does it better.
In the US, there’s really isn’t infrastructure to have a distance-only or sprint-only program. So you could say have left off “that has Mark’s record of accomplishments” (which is a very long list – acknowledged) and it still would have been true.
There are distance groups in the US having more success right now, though. The University of Florida, for example, where besides Finke and Whitlock incoming, has one other thing that Schubert’s most recent group didn’t have, which is also a world-class female distance swimmer (Katie Ledecky).
I definitely think there’s still a place in the world of swimming for a coach like Mark Schubert if he still wants to coach. I’m not saying that at all. I actually… Read more »
I can agree with that. There are still high level swimmers choosing Mark’s program, and that will continue until he retires probably. To make it sound like there are tons of other programs out there seems like a huge stretch.
Wow the comments section shows how much the swimming community is so so so supportive of one another.. 🙃
He’s an enabler of sexual abusers.
Good riddance. Coach of the Chinese swimmers!
nā ʻuhane in that rennisance academy pool. Nope.
“If tomorrow my company goes under, I will just start another paper company, and then another and another and another. I have no shortage of company names.”
Or paper.
The tale of most entrepreneurial swim coaches tbh; wet paper companies, “XYZ Athletics, LLC”, “ABC Racing Inc.” Most of which is sorta kinda on the books through Team Unify or some kind of software and the other money trail is loose ended Venmo transfers or even cash exchanges for some sort of private coaching situation.
“Look, it’s all very technical, just talk to my attorney about it, Ive got a practice to run here”