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The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.
Alabama’s Coley Stickels stepped down as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide and will be replaced by Margo Geer, who is training under Stickels to make the Olympic team. USA Swimming also announced that the TYR Pro Swim Series will be held in two different sites instead of three, due to southern California’s COVID restrictions in place.
Read below the five biggest stories in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.
The Week That Was #1: Coley Stickels Resigns as Alabama Coach
Photo Courtesy: Robert Sutton
Alabama swimming head coach Coley Stickels has resigned his position to focus on preparing athletes for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the school announced Monday.
Margo Geer will replace Stickels after the 2021 Olympic Games, for which the 28-year-old Geer hopes to qualify. Assistant coach Ozzie Quevedo is the interim coach.
Stickels joined the Crimson Tide in April 2019, coaching the squad through the truncated 2019-20 season and this fall. Alabama won 15 medals and broke 23 school records at the 2020 SEC Championship and qualified 24 swimmers for the cancelled 2020 NCAA Championships, garnering a total of 57 All-American honors.
“This was not an easy decision, but I’ve decided it is best to step down as head coach of the Alabama Swimming & Diving program,” Stickels said in a university release. “It’s been an honor to serve in this position at Alabama. After personal reflection, however, I need to reprioritize my time to concentrate on training athletes for national and international competition, including the upcoming Olympics. I wish the team all of the best going forward and know they are in good hands.”
Alabama’s women’s team is ranked 11th in the nation in the final CSCAA poll of 2020 with the men 14th. Two meets are scheduled for 2021, with Auburn and Georgia Tech on the schedule for January.
#2: USA Swimming Reduces TYR Pro Swim Series to Two Sites Due to Southern California COVID Restrictions
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
USA Swimming has announced that the upcoming TYR Pro Series event, scheduled for Jan. 14-17, has been reduced from a three-site competition to a two-site meet. While the meet will still take place with fields in San Antonio and Richmond, USA Swimming was forced to cancel the Irvine location due to the extension of the Southern California Regional Stay-at-Home Order in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
There will be no replacement site for the Irvine locale, but the San Antonio and Richmond sites will be unaffected. The San Antonio meet will feature an invitation-only field that will allow some of the top names in USA Swimming to open their 2021 seasons against strong competition. Both San Antonio and Richmond will host approximately 100 female and male athletes, respectively. All protocols pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic will be followed.
The Week That Was #3: Big Ten Conference Finalizes Spring Semester Schedule
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The Big Ten Conference has finalized its swimming and diving dual meet schedule for the 2021 spring semester, in an email obtained by Swimming World, with each team participating three sets of tri-meets across the three weekends of January 15 & 16, January 22 & 23, and February 5 & 6.
January 15-16
- Michigan, Northwestern at Indiana
- Wisconsin, Nebraska at Iowa
- Penn State, Rutgers at Ohio State
- Michigan State, Illinois at Purdue
January 22-23
- Ohio State at Indiana
- Michigan State, Rutgers at Michigan
- Iowa, Penn State at Northwestern
- Minnesota, Purdue at Wisconsin
- Illinois at Nebraska
February 5-6
- Ohio State at Michigan
- Iowa, Nebraska at Minnesota
- Michigan State at Penn State
- Indiana, Rutgers at Purdue
- Northwestern, Illinois at Wisconsin
#4: Yu Yiting Hits World Junior Record in 400 IM in China
Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
15-year-old Yu Yiting had swam a big best time in the heats of the 400 IM at 4:35.94 at the China Swim Series. She is eligible for the world junior record which currently stands at 4:38.53 by Spain’s Alba Vazquez Ruiz from the 2019 Junior Worlds. Yu was a 4:37.62 in the final for her second fastest time of her career.
China has the fastest time ever by an 18 and under swimmer with Ye Shiwen’s 4:28.43 from the 2012 Olympics when she was 16, which was before FINA started recognizing world junior records. China’s Zhou Min also holds a non-ratified junior record from 2014 at 4:35.69, but she had turned 18 before January 1, 2015, which left her ineligible.
Yu put herself third in the world rankings within the last 12 months:
- 4:32.53, Melanie Margalis, USA
- 4:32.73, Kaylee McKeown, AUS
- 4:35.94, Yu Yiting, CHN
- 4:36.02, Katinka Hosszu, HUN
- 4:36.77, Sakiko Shimizu, JPN
- 4:37.54, Aimee Willmott, GBR
The Week That Was #5: Emily Seebohm Shares Battle With Eating Disorder
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Australian Olympic gold medalist Emily Seebohm revealed a two-year battle with an eating disorder in an Instagram post Friday, beginning 2021 with a pledge, “to be braver for myself.”
Seebohm’s post shared her struggles with binging, purging and meal skipping. She discussed her dissatisfaction with her body image and the struggle at being told that, “the only way I can swim faster is by losing weight and I have believed it.”
Seebohm’s post includes a new butterfly tattoo, a symbol of the Australian Butterfly Foundation, which supports people suffering from eating disorders. For Seebohm, as the calendar flips to an Olympic year, the tattoo is, “a reminder that I can do this!”
