Gideon Louw has been promoted to the position of University of Minnesota associate head coach for men’s and women’s swimming and diving. The former Olympian spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach, working primarily with the sprint freestyle group and leading the Golden Gophers’ international recruiting efforts. Louw’s new role will expand his coaching, recruiting and administrative responsibilities with the teams.
“Gideon has done a tremendous job with our student-athletes, and he has embraced Minnesota as his home,” Gophers head coach Kelly Kremer said. “He is one of the best young teachers and coaches in our sport.”
Louw helped the Gophers qualify all five men’s relays for the NCAA Championships this past season. The 400-yard freestyle relay team broke a 12-year-old program record and earned All-America honorable mention. The 400 medley team set a new Gophers record at the Big Ten Championships and earned Minnesota’s first relay medal in four years.
Sprinter Bowe Becker qualified for NCAAs individually in both his first two seasons, racing in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races. Becker also broke the short course school record in the 100 and the long course record in the 50. He won the 50-meter freestyle at last summer’s U.S. Open, and both sprint races at November’s AT&T Winter Nationals.
Louw helped engineer a turnaround for the Gopher men’s relays in 2016. After sending no relays to the NCAA Championships in 2015, they sent four in 2016. The 200-yard medley relay collected All-America Honorable Mention accolades.
Minnesota’s incoming recruiting class for the 2017-18 season includes four international swimmers recruited by Louw. All of them have experience competing in major events outside their home countries.
Outside of collegiate coaching, Louw also works with Olympic hopefuls. Minnesota alumnus David Plummer, who trained with Louw leading up to the 2016 Olympics, won a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a gold medal with the United States’ 400-meter medley relay.
Louw came to Minnesota after serving two seasons as a graduate assistant at Florida State, where he provided planning and implementation of workouts and provided analysis and instruction of swimming techniques, among other duties. While at FSU, Louw helped the Seminole men to a 14th place finish at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.
Prior to joining the coaching staff at Florida State, Louw represented South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where he finished fifth overall as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay and ninth overall individually in the 50-meter freestyle. Louw also competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where he finished 12th overall in the 50-meter freestyle.
Press release courtesy of University of Minnesota.
well we will see how that goes