The Week That Was: Cody & Ali Miller Announce Pregnancy; House a Lead Plaintiff in Suit Against NCAA

Cody_Miller_Ali_Dewitt_2015_Golden_Goggles

Cody & Ali Miller when they got engaged at the 2015 Golden Goggles. Photo Courtesy of Ali Dewitt

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The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

Reigning Olympic bronze medalist Cody Miller announced he and his wife Ali will become parents in November as they made the announcement official on Father’s Day. Miller will join fellow 100 breast Olympic medalist Adam Peaty as a father ahead of next year’s Olympics.

Arizona State’s Grant House was a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the NCAA that challenges the NCAA’s rules that prohibit athletes from making endorsement money during their college careers.

Read below the five biggest stories in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

The Week That Was #5: World University Games Silver Medalist Asia Seidt Retires

Photo Courtesy: Connor Trimble

By Andy Ross

Kentucky graduate Asia Seidt announced her retirement from the sport of swimming on Wednesday, 52 weeks before next year’s Olympic Trials that were pushed back a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seidt, the reigning US national champion in the 200 backstroke, was an outside shot at making the Olympic Team in 2020 as she was ranked seventh in the United States in the 200 backstroke in 2019.

Last year, she was the silver medalist in the 200 backstroke at the World University Games with a 2:08.56, finishing 1-2 with fellow American Lisa Bratton.

Asia Seidt, originally out of Louisville, Kentucky and the Lakeside Swim Team, swam collegiately for the University of Kentucky, where she was a three-time SEC Champion in the 200 backstroke, and made eight A-Finals at the NCAA Championships. She did not get a chance to close out her career at NCAAs in 2020 as the meet was cancelled, but she was a favorite in both backstroke events, as well as the 200 IM.

#4: Pac-12 Commissioner Says Most Athletes Will Be Safer on Campus Than at Home

Photo Courtesy: McKenna Ehrmantraut

By Andy Ross

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said he believes most athletes in the conference would be safer training on campus than at home, according to a report from USA Today and AZ Central Sports. Scott said in an interview that Pac-12 athletes will be tested when they return to campus for COVID-19 and for the COVID antibodies to determine if someone was previously infected and has recovered.

“Now that they’ve started opening gyms in local communities, our medical experts feel that it would be safer to be in the weight room, let’s say at ASU, than it would be at the local 24 Hour Fitness or Gold’s Gym in Tempe or somewhere else around the country,” Scott told AZ Central Sports.

“There’s a wide range of conditions for student-athletes at home and access whether it’s nutrition, training. For most student-athletes, the facilities they’ll be able to work out in are going to have the hygiene, sanitation, social distancing protections. They’re going to have the oversight of strength and conditioning coaches and the supervision that they can’t get at home. Thirdly, they’re going to have access to testing and fourth if they have the virus or have been exposed to the virus, they have world-class medical facilities at our schools.”

The Week That Was #3: Sandra Volker Auctions Off Atlanta Medals For 26,000 Euros

Sandra Volker in her swimming heydey – Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer

By Craig Lord, Swimming World Editor-in-Chief

Sandra Völker first auctioned her 1996 medals back in 2014 to clear debts. Today, her Olympic medals from the 100m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta for Germany fetched €26,000 at auction in Kassel. The Auction, by Agon Sportsworld, raised €15,000 for the silver medal earned over 100m freestyle and €11,000 for the relay medal. The proceeds went to the 2014 buyer, who had also fallen into financial difficulties.

When Sandra Völker auctioned her Atlanta 1996 Olympic medals in 2014, they raised almost €60,000, which helped the German ace to clear a large chunk of the €100,000 debts she had incurred when investments and business did not take off as intended.

Now, two of her three medals will go under the hammer once more tomorrow, in a week in which she celebrates the 20th anniversary of the 50m backstroke World record in Berlin, on on 28.25sec. The standard would stand for five years until fellow German Janine Pietsch clocked 28.19 in the same pool.

While Vöelker’s bankruptcy was clear in 2018 and her life got back on track, the private patron who bought her medals has run into financial difficulties himself and must now sell on. He had originally planned to reassign the medals to Völker but cannot now do so.

Völker’s story is among those that show in the starkest of terms how multi-Olympic medallists with huge careers and a pantheon of medals won for her country in swimming comes out with nothing to show for it, financially, but debts and the struggles that come hand-in-hand with a bank balance in the red.

#2: Grant House a Lead Plaintiff in Suit Against NCAA

Grant House; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By Matthew De George

Arizona State swimmer Grant House is named as a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the NCAA filed in northern California.

The suit, filed Monday morning, challenges the NCAA’s rules that prohibit athletes from making endorsement money during their college careers. House and Oregon women’s basketball player Sedona Prince are the lead plaintiffs. The Power 5 Conferences – The Big 10, Big 12, Southeastern, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conferences – are also accused of illegally limiting the compensation their athletes can receive.

House, a 6-6 junior at Arizona State, took an Olympic redshirt season in 2019-20. The Maineville, Ohio, native has represented the United States at the World University Games and is a mid-distance freestyle and individual medley contender at Olympic Trials next year.

“The way the rules are right now, the NCAA puts college athletes who are shooting for the Olympics at a huge disadvantage to other athletes training to compete,” House said in a statement. “Our ability to fund our Olympic training efforts are essentially squashed by the NCAA’s rules on name, image and likeness. While Olympic athletes in general rely heavily on endorsements and other image deals to afford the cost of competing and training, the NCAA shuts us out of that opportunity entirely.”

The Week That Was #1: Cody Miller & Wife Ali Announce First Pregnancy

Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers

By Andy Ross

Reigning Olympic bronze medalist Cody Miller announced on his latest vlog that he and his wife Ali will be expecting a baby in November 2020. After being married for over three years, Ali found out she was pregnant in late February, just before the COVID-19 virus caused everyone to be quarantined in their homes.

The gender of the baby has not been revealed yet, but Miller showed pictures of the sonogram on his YouTube channel. He made the announcement on Father’s Day.

With a due date in November 2020, Cody Miller will become a father before pursuing a second trip to the Olympic Games. He made his debut in Rio with an individual bronze medal in the 100 breaststroke. Coincidentally, the gold medalist in Rio, Adam Peaty, will also be a father in pursuit of repeat gold in Tokyo next year.

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