Mike Bottom Receives Contract Extension From University of Michigan

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The University of Michigan announced that the contract of head swimming coach Mike Bottom will be extended through the 2026-27 season.

Bottom has been the head men’s coach for the past 13 years and the head women’s coach for the past eight.

“I am thrilled to extend Mike’s leadership of our men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs well into the future,” Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel said in a release. “Mike is passionate about this university, the sport of swimming and diving, and his student-athletes, and I look forward to his continued enthusiasm and guidance of our combined programs.”

Mike Bottom has led the Wolverines to an overall record of 104-9-1 on the men’s side in 13 seasons. Since 2008, he has helped the team to eight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a run of four years in the top five from 2012-15. He is a six-time Big Ten Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year (2011-15, 2020) and was named CSCAA Swimming Coach of the Year in 2013. During his tenure, Bottom has coached the men’s swimmers to a total of nine national titles (eight individual, one relay), and has produced 113 Big Ten individual, relay or diving titles and 40 CSCAA All-Americans.

In Bottom’s eight years of overseeing the women’s team, the Wolverines won three consecutive Big Ten titles from 2016-18 — the program’s first three-peat since 1996-98. During that time, Michigan is 67-14 in dual meets (47-7 in the Big Ten) and improved 26 spots in its finishes at the NCAA Championships over a three-year span (36th in 2013 to 10th in 2016). All 18 Michigan short course (yards) swimming records have gone down since Bottom took over, including 15 since the start of the 2018 season. In his eight years with the women’s team, he has coached 11 CSCAA All-Americans (individual) and 33 Big Ten individual or relay champions. He is a two-time Big Ten Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year (2018, 2019).

“I would like to thank Warde Manuel for continuing to have faith in me and my staff to lead this great program,” Mike Bottom said in a release. “As I enter this multi-year agreement as the head coach for the Swim and Dive program, I recall what I learned when I started here; that in order to win championships you have to have the support of many people pushing in the same direction. I look forward to leading those who are here and those who choose to join us in the future. Those who stay will be champions.”

In Bottom’s time in Ann Arbor, a Michigan swimmer has been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year 11 times: Tyler Clary (2009-10), Dan Madwed (2012), Connor Jaeger (2013-14), Dylan Bosch (2015), Felix Auböck (2017, 2020) and Maggie MacNeil (2020-22). Mike Bottom also has coached more than two dozen Olympians during his time at Michigan, including 2020 Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalist MacNeil.

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