Madi Mintenko Following Family Legacy, Emerging as Mid-Distance Force
Less than two months after moving to the University of Virginia, Madi Mintenko swam at the 2025 Summer Championships in Irvine, Calif., a consolation meet of sorts for those who did not qualify for the World Championships. Before that meet, she had never broken 1:58 in the 200 freestyle, but she ended up swimming 1:56.95 in the final. Not yet 18 years old, Mintenko finished the year as the eighth-fastest American in the event.
One year later, she would return to Irvine for what might go down as the breakout performance of her career at U.S. Nationals. Mintenko cut her best time in the 200 free by another second on the way to a third-place finish. Two days later, she secured her first national title, dominating the 400 free final throughout. Mintenko held off a late surge by Kate Hurst to win by almost two seconds, her time of 4:04.54 clobbering her previous best time by three seconds.
“I had no idea that that was going to happen,” Mintenko said. “I knew that I had been working my butt off and doing the best I could in practice, and working on a few things that I hadn’t been working on during the spring, and with more long course practices added into our workouts, that was really nice.”
As for the 200, the time of 1:55.87 put her in the top-10 in the world for the first time, although that stay might be short-lived with the European Championships and Pan Pacific Championships taking place this week. Still, the time would have been quick enough to qualify to represent the United States in the 800 free relay at every previous selection meet, giving Mintenko a strong foundation on which to build 10 months out of the qualification meet for next summer’s World Championships.
A Multi-Generational Tradition
Madi Mintenko — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
If she makes that relay, she would be the second in her family to do so after mother Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko, who won Olympic gold medals as part of this team at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Madi’s father is Mike Mintenko, also a two-time Olympian but for Canada, whose top career achievement came when he won bronze in the 100 butterfly at the 2005 World Championships. Mintenko’s parents met through swimming internationally, although they disagree on where exactly that happened.
“My dad always says they met in Fukuoka (at the 2001 World Championships), and my mom didn’t remember because she didn’t give him the light of day,” Mintenko said. “And then my mom thinks they met in Germany. I don’t know if they’ve come to a consensus on that. But they did meet through swimming.”
Madi believes that having Olympians as parents has given her an edge as she has risen through the ranks of the sport. Her parents did not force her to focus on swimming as a youth beyond water safety, but she quickly ended up excelling while representing Pikes Peak Athletics.
When I hit the age where I was going to U.S. Open meets and stuff like that, I really started to appreciate their swim knowledge more. I am super blessed because people who have parents that didn’t swim, they don’t really understand the sport like my parents do. I would always go home and I could ask them questions about my race, what they saw,” Mintenko said. “The sport has changed a lot since they swam, which is something they say a lot to me, but I think they still have a very large cloud of ideas about the sport.”
Lindsay was present at all of those elite-level meets Madi would race in, but until 2024, she was primarily focused on her job as USA Swimming’s national team managing director. Since leaving that position, Lindsay has been able to spend more time watching her daughter and providing the feedback specific to their shared signature event.
“She always lets me know how I look in the water in prelims. Being a little taller, when you sink, it just makes swimming a lot more difficult,” Madi said. “This time, when we were in Irvine, she said, ‘Just think about all the training that you’ve done. You have the speed to go out and come back, especially since you swim longer events, so don’t be afraid to leave something at the end, but also don’t be afraid to go out with everyone else but not kill yourself trying to do it.’”
Her Own Swimming Journey
Mintenko credits the early guidance she received from coach George Heidinger at Pikes Peak as a foundation and the culture and training at Virginia for helping her take the next steps in her career. During those formative years, Heidinger intentionally limited Mintenko’s training, abstaining from doubles and swimming just six times per week plus two weight training sessions (three her senior year). She never used power tools such as drag sox or parachutes, intending to save that for college.
At the same time, Heidinger wanted Mintenko to feel like she belonged at major competitions. “He’s like, ‘I want you to go to Olympic Trials and it to feel like a completely normal meet.’” Mintenko said. “That was before we knew it was going to be in Lucas Oil (Stadium), but he was like, ‘I want you to go to Olympic Trials, and I want you to feel like you’re just at like a TYR Pro or a U.S. Open, and you feel like you’re strong enough, and you belong in these heats with these girls.’”
That lifted Mintenko to an Olympic Trials final at 16 years old, finishing eighth in the 400 free. At that same meet, she placed 10th in the 200 free despite being the youngest of the 16 semifinalists.
And as with so many talented high school swimmers who have joined up with the six-time-national-champion Virginia Cavaliers, Mintenko has taken the next steps. A strong freshman campaign culminated with two individual finals appearances at the NCAA Championships, finishing fifth in the 200 free and eighth in the 500 free, and Mintenko took part in two national-title-winning relays. She swam the second-best split on Virginia’s meet-record-setting 800 free relay and helped the 400 free relay to the fastest time in history.
Training and culture must both click for a swimmer to leap to the next level in college, and that’s exactly what has happened. When she visited Virginia on her recruiting trip three years ago, Mintenko was drawn into the team camaraderie. When she arrived for good, she felt welcomed and embraced right away.
“We all live in a shared like apartment complex, and that is something that I think really brings our team together. Charlottesville is not that big of a city, so finding a place where we can all live together and kind of just like walk into each other’s apartments is super cool,” Mintenko said. “All of the athletes at UVA have mopeds, so I would moped from my dorm to apartments, and I would have dinner, and we would watch movies, and we would just hang out. And I think that’s what fostered my relationship with a lot of the people who aren’t first-years that I didn’t get to see all the time.”
Building for the Next Level
Madi Mintenko (right) with Virginia teammate Anna Moesch at the 2026 NCAA Championships — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
From a competitive standpoint, she credits her primary coach, Virginia associate head coach Gary Taylor, for helping develop her analytical swimming sense.
“In the fall, I really struggled with comprehending what we were doing and why we were doing it and what I needed to focus on because it was new,” Mintenko said. “My club team used the (Jon) Urbanchek method of colors, and Gary uses gears based off a set that we do a few months into each season, so that was a bit of a shift, and I can’t say that I’ve mastered it. I wasn’t able to do it week after week until the spring. I’m really excited to be able to build off that.”
Every Tuesday during this past season, Mintenko would shift into head coach Todd DeSorbo’s group for a 200 free-oriented set. She recalled one week-to-week progression over the summer that culminated with a set of 10 x 50 short course yards on 1:40, where she and teammate Anna Moesch were asked to hold 25 seconds for each rep. Mintenko enjoys those practices in particular since she gets to practice with more sprint-oriented swimmers, which can include Virginia’s Olympian contingent of Claire Curzan, Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh.
Mintenko hopes to build on her progress heading into the 2026-27 season, during which she will take on a more central role in the Cavaliers pursuit of a seventh consecutive title before seeking qualification for the World Championships. She listed race strategy as one area with room for growth
“Gear-changing, making sure like when you hit that third 50 in the 200, you’ve got to go,” Mintenko said. “When you hit that third 100 for the 400, you gotta go. Structurally, the 200 and the 400 are very similar. One just happens to be longer than the other. At least the way I swim them is very similar. And then I think that my underwaters are something that I really want to try and put more into in long course. Short course I feel like I use them very well. In long course, it’s a little bit more difficult.”
As she prepares for her second year of college, Mintenko is considering majoring in political science, with thoughts of perhaps going to law school one day or following her parents into working in sports. Swimming, though, is not going anywhere, with Mintenko calling the sport “something that brings so much value to my life.” Following the passage of new NCAA eligibility guidelines, Mintenko can swim for five years, which she plans on using, and she has already considered the prospect of continuing her career to 2032.
“I know that’s different for everyone but being able to see someone like Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel, they’re still going and they still have great races all the time,” Mintenko said. “It gives me confidence. I love swimming so much, and I can’t imagine my life without it.”