Gena Jorgenson Putting South Dakota on Swim Map; Debating Future as Professional
Gena Jorgenson had a great end to her swimming career at Nebraska and wanted to continue through the summer.
The South Dakota native swam so well that it has become a problem – a good problem.
Jorgenson has graduated from Nebraska, exhausted her eligibility and has taken a job in Omaha. But her times have been so fast that she is considering continuing to swim as a professional.
“It is whether or not I continue to swim collegiately. It means a great deal to me to have this option. If you asked me last year, I would have said now. This past collegiate and summer season kind of changed that,” Gena Jorgenson told Swimming World. “I love the sport of swimming and it requires a lot of time. I have other career goals to work toward. I am taking a little break to see how things work out with having a job.”
And it isn’t just any job.
“I am a research assistant for a neuroscience institute,” she said. “I work in the neurodiversity lab. We are working with kids 8-11 and taking them through neuro scanning devices and look at their brain activity and how their brain is structure and to see how those correlate to radon exposure. It is very prevalent in Nebraska. We look at how that impacts their brain development”
It is a three-year study with the kids in Omaha. Meaning Jorgenson would have to swim in Omaha as well as Lincoln to continue her career.
“There is a lot to think about,” she said.
Jorgenson was an NCAA qualifier all four years, earning four All-American swims during her career, the best finish being fourth in the 1650 freestyle (15:42.94) in March, helping the Cornhuskers to a top-30 finish for the first time since 2021.
“It is so much fun to see how far the team has come from my freshman year to my senior year. You could kind of tell each year that we set higher standards for ourselves, and that is something that has helped us grow through the years,” Jorgenson said. “It is the team culture. We don’t have the best facilities, we don’t have a 50-meter pool, but we have everything we need. We lose recruits because of that sometimes, but our team culture has really helped our program.”
The team culture has been extremely important to Jorgenson after not having high school swimming to build that team dynamic in South Dakota.
“It definitely means a lot that I can separate South Dakota even though it doesn’t have a really big swim community (compared with other states),” Jorgenson said. “I proved to myself that you can come from a small community and do bigger things.”
Jorgenson grew up in Aberdeen, a town of around 25,000, which had its own community pool. She is one of two South Dakota natives to enjoy an impressive summer, and give the state a nudge on the national stage. Nick Rounds was a finalist in the 100 backstroke at Nationals.
“I had a great group I could train with. South Dakota is the only state that doesn’t have it. It is definitely different than college swimming,” Jorgenson. “We all went to different schools to swim and my class across the state was probably one of the bigger classes to have swimmers continue collegiately. Being from South Dakota did kind of make me feel like I couldn’t go to a big school when I was looking. But I am glad I picked Nebraska.”
That continued into the summer for Jorgenson.
She was the national runnerup in the 800 free (8:31.18) at the U.S. National Championships in July and made the finals in the 400 free (4:10.33).
“I had a great summer. I was really pleased with everything. Training-wise, I definitely upped some things in the pool and did more weights than previous summers. That really helped. Having a good team culture was something that really helped. It is very cliche saying, but when you are happy, you swim faster, and that is definitely how I felt this summer,” she said.
At the TYR Pro Swim Series stop in Indianapolis earlier in the summer, Jorgenson took third in the 1500 freestyle (16:13.87), trailing just Katie Ledecky and Katie Grimes.
“I had a really good meet in Indy, but (knowing I could take the next step) built over time,” Jorgenson said.