{"id":109709,"date":"2014-09-12T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T00:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=109709"},"modified":"2019-08-08T10:18:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:18:19","slug":"bruce-gemmell-named-2014-asca-coach-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/bruce-gemmell-named-2014-asca-coach-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Gemmell Named 2014 ASCA Coach of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott<\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Florida, September 12. \u00a0FOR the second straight year, Nation’s Capital’s Bruce Gemmell has been named the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) Swim Coach of the Year for his astonishing work with the incomparable Katie Ledecky.<\/p>\n

A year after mentoring Ledecky to her first Swimming World<\/em> World Swimmer of the Year for her four gold-medal performance at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, Gemmell took the ASCA award again after Ledecky completely revolutionized women’s distance swimming with five astounding world record performances throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

In a year capped with five gold medals at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, Ledecky twice set the women’s 400-meter freestyle and 1500-meter freestyle world records as well as lowered her own 800-meter freestyle record once.<\/p>\n

She opened her unreal long course season with a jaw-dropping performance at The Woodlands Senior Invite. \u00a0At the in-season meet in Texas, she set the world record in the 800 free by taking her 8:13.86 from Barcelona down to an even 8:11.00<\/a>. \u00a0She also dropped more than two seconds off her 1500-meter freestyle record from Barcelona (15:36.53) with her sizzling 15:34.23 in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t done, however, as she managed to put on a show at both the U.S. Nationals and Pan Pacific Championships. \u00a0In Irvine, she became the first person since Janet Evans to hold the women’s 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle world records concurrently by posting a 3:58.86 in the women’s 400-meter free<\/a>. \u00a0That swim beat Federica Pellegrini’s 2009 world record of 3:59.15.<\/p>\n

Ledecky followed up with an epic meet in Australia at Pan Pacs. \u00a0She lowered her 400-meter freestyle mark even further with a 3:58.37<\/a>, while also chopping a brain-rattling six seconds off her world record in the 1500 free (15:34.23) with a blistering time of 15:28.36<\/a>. \u00a0Her efforts in Australia gained her Swimmer of the Meet honors, and made her an early favorite for another Swimming World<\/em> World Swimmer of the Year title this December.<\/p>\n

Gemmell won the award from among a Mount Rushmore of coaching nominees in North Baltimore’s Bob Bowman, Michigan’s Mike Bottom, SwimMAC’s David Marsh, Stanford’s Greg Meehan and Florida’s Gregg Troy.<\/p>\n

Katie Ledecky’s International Medals:<\/h1>\n

2012 Olympics<\/h2>\n