Breaking Down The 2024 U.S. Olympic Team By NCAA Ties

07/02/2024 04:49 PM

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

Two of the most dominant college programs in recent memory, the Virginia women and Texas men, headline the 2024 U.S. Olympic swimming teams in terms of NCAA affiliation.

A modern dynasty, the University of Virginia women have won four straight national titles and have built Charlottesville into a hub for some of the top swimmers in the country, attracting some of the best recruits annually while keeping a post-grad superstar like Kate Douglass around after turning pro.

Along with Douglass, who won the women’s 100 free, 200 breast and 200 IM at the Olympic Trials, Virginia will be sending current team members Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh and Emma Weber to Paris, along with a former member of the team, Paige Madden.

If you’re a Virginia fan, you’ll have another American swimmer to root for at the Olympics, as 17-year-old Thomas Heilman, the top-ranked recruit in the boys’ high school class of 2025 who is committed to join the Cavaliers next fall, qualified for the Olympic team in the men’s 100 and 200 fly.

Also sending multiple female swimmers to the Games are Stanford, Cal and Indiana.

Of Stanford’s four, Torri Huske is notably the only one currently training in Palo Alto, with Simone Manuel and Regan Smith now both at Texas with Bob Bowman and Katie Ledecky being based out of Gainesville with Anthony Nesty.

U.S. WOMEN’S ROSTER

On the men’s side, Texas leads the way with five swimmers on the U.S. team, including one current member in Luke Hobson, one future member in Aaron Shackell, and two former members in Drew Kibler and Carson Foster.

The fifth swimmer is David Johnston, who took a redshirt season and moved to train with The Swim Team in California, but is expected to return next year.

In addition to Manuel, Smith and Madden, Texas also has male swimmers Shaine Casas and Chase Kalisz on the team currently training in Austin though never having raced for the Longhorns.

Following Texas’ five is the Florida Gators, who have four men on the team—though none of them competed for UF this past NCAA season. Caeleb Dressel, Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith are three decorated former Gators—all still training in Gainesville—while Luke Whitlock is an incoming freshman fresh off a breakout showing in Indianapolis.

MEN’S ROSTER

In terms of a combined total, joining Virginia and Texas with six qualified swimmers is Cal and Indiana, both with three men and three women apiece.

The Golden Bears put two future members, Alex Shackell and Claire Weinstein, on the women’s team, along with graduated sprinter Abbey Weitzeil.

The men put current members Jack Alexy and Keaton Jones on the Olympic squad along with Ryan Murphy, who will represent the U.S. men in both backstroke events for the third straight Games.

Cal also has Brooks Curry (LSU) and Hunter Armstrong (Ohio State by way of WVU) on the team who train in Berkeley but never represented the Bears in the NCAA.

Indiana landed post-grads Lilly King and Blake Pieroni, current members Josh Matheny, Anna Peplowski and Mariah Denigan, and incoming transfer Matt King on the team.

NCAA TEAMS RANKED BY U.S. OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS

1. Virginia / Texas / Indiana / Cal, 6
2. –
3. –
4. –
5. Florida, 5
6. Stanford, 4
7. Georgia, 3
8. NC State, 2
9. Nine teams tied with 1 (Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio State, Texas A&M, LSU, Penn, Notre Dame, WVU, Michigan)

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