Yannick Agnel, French Olympic Swim Star, NBAC Athlete (Photo Credit: Victor Puig, victorpuig.com)
Bob Bowman’s North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC) may be the greatest swim club ever assembled. NBAC elite swimmers include; 3-time Olympic medalist Yannick Agnel, Olympic Gold medalist Conor Dwyer, pool and open water Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli, 2012 Olympic gold medalist Matt McLean, 6-time Olympic medalist Allison Schmitt, US Butterfly National Champion Tom Luchsinger, open water and pool elite Becca Mann, Olympic medalist and World Champion Lotte Friis, NCAA Champion and World Medalist Chase Kalisz, US National Champion Gillian Ryan, Junior Worlds gold medalist Cierra Runge, paralympic swim star Jessica Long, and Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time (if he officially comes back).
Over the next two and half years, as we approach the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, whether or not NBAC is the greatest swim team (club team, not an NGB team) will be determined. Among the US super clubs, SwimMAC is extremely formiddable as is David Salo’s crew at Trojan Aquatic Club.
If you had to predict which club will put the most athletes on Olympic Teams, which would it be?
You can follow Coach Bob Bowman on Twitter here.
This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com.
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Texas men 2003-2009.
i think the development of NBAC, swimMAC, NYAC and even the smaller post grad clubs like IX3, Schroeder Y, T2 and others are the best thing to happen to american swimming. college swimming is great, but we need a way for those with a desire for more to continue after college when both men and women are capable of accomplishing things they cannot do without ~10 years of heavy training. i liken it to the pro leagues in the 4 major sports. very rarely do you see a football player enter their first draft younger than 22. baseball is a bit different but the avg age on those teams is significantly higher than 23, the usual top age of an… Read more »
Kalisz is home grown NBAC. He is only in his third semester training at UGA as did not enroll until the 2nd semester last season. He trains at NBAC when not in school including for the World Championships last summer beginning with the Colorado training camp in May. He and Dwyer were killing it last summer in IM sets
What about the SOPAC Team in Sydney. They dropped a 3.17.9 in the 400 free relay in December in season! Featuring a 47.7 split from Magnussen
Also commercial coached by simon cusack. Bronte and cate Campbell, Christian sprenger + more. Not exactly best in world club, but high in australia I would say
Love how they mention assembled..these athletes are post college predominantly and/or lack a pro team to suit them as in other sports, so they come to him for that reason. Other than that I can’t really give him credit for their success as much as I would somewhere else. There needs to be more post-NCAA places for athletes to train, and a league for these swimmers to compete in. Although that would be nice, a lot of the pros train at their own pace and some only need to months before major meets etc. Overall, I don’t think he deserves credit for their success, he just simply is a great facilitator and coach that gives an inch and expects a… Read more »
I think you’ve gotta put the University of Michigan up there for that stretch between ’04 and ’08. They had Bowman training Phelps, Klete Keller, all the Vanderkaays, Erik Vendt, Kaitlin Sandeno, Allison Schmitt, Chris Thompson, Deyoung, Tyler Clary…They had some big names in the sport and should be in this convo as well.
P.S. Prediction: Michigan will win the national championship again this year.
Agreed… Michigan during that time was impressive. Tarwater belongs on that list… I think NBAC will grow between now and ’16… more elites will join. (Same with SwimMAC #eartotheroad)
Are more top swimmers going to be joining the Swimmac camp Mel?
count on it…
I think a pro league sounds like a great idea. Perhaps they could even incorporate existing meets into a point system or something. I wouldn’t want to take swimmers away from the Grand Prix meets or Nationals, but I also wouldn’t want to see them merely engulfed by a pro league.
bowman basically got the best swimmers to come join him when they were already at their peak. mclean years at UVA, ous at SC, dwyer at Florida, yannick from france, friis, luchsinger, and mann. plus kalisz spends most of his time at georgia. so Bowman didn’t really do much to make these swimmers fast. most already had gold medals before joining the group.
True, but they’re at a new level, striving to get more out of their careers, which is why they want to train among elites. (BTW, Bowman didn’t recruit them. That was very clear behind the scenes. They recruited each other, athlete to athlete…. This happens often before the next Olympics, but I haven’t seen this strong a crew come together this soon. SwimMAC, of course, had their elites as early as 2013, but Marsh’s ’12 performance speaks for itself.)
well regardless of how it happened, it is exciting!