Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1884\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1059\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdoctormd\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\"},\"headline\":\"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\"},\"wordCount\":588,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2008 Olympics\",\"Joe Dykstra\",\"Jonas Persson\",\"Pac-12 Swimming\",\"Tennessee\",\"Toledo\",\"Utah\"],\"articleSection\":[\"College\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\",\"name\":\"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg\",\"width\":1884,\"height\":1059,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Utah Athletics\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\",\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\"},\"description\":\"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach","description":"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach","og_description":"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1884,"height":1059,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sportsdoctormd","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3"},"headline":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach","datePublished":"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/"},"wordCount":588,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","keywords":["2008 Olympics","Joe Dykstra","Jonas Persson","Pac-12 Swimming","Tennessee","Toledo","Utah"],"articleSection":["College"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/","name":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-03T18:35:56+00:00","description":"Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson as the program's next head swimming and diving coach.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","width":1884,"height":1059,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Utah Athletics"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3","name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer"},"description":"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com","https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Utah Athletics","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SD_2022_New_Coach_Template_Graphic__1920x1080__v0.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-27kn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":504827,"date":"2022-05-03T11:35:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T18:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=504827"},"modified":"2022-05-03T11:35:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T18:35:56","slug":"utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/utah-hires-jonas-persson-as-head-swimming-and-diving-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah Hires Jonas Persson as Head Swimming and Diving Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Utah on Tuesday announced the hiring of Jonas Persson<\/strong> as the school\u2019s next head swimming and diving coach.<\/p>\n

Persson had served as the program\u2019s associate head coach for the last three seasons. It\u2019s his second stint with the Utes, where he was the head sprint coach from 2011-16. Part of that tenure was under head coach Joe Dykstra,<\/strong> who resigned in March<\/a>. Persson served as an interim coach during part of the postseason for the Utes with Dykstra away due to health reasons, which he cited in his resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very excited and honored to have been given this opportunity to lead the University of Utah Swimming & Diving program,\u201d Persson said in a university statement<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure to work with Utah student-athletes since we joined the Pac-12 in 2011, and to see the success we have had since then. I believe that this team and athletics department are ready to take the Swim & Dive program to new heights of success. I can\u2019t thank the search committee enough, especially Charmelle<\/strong> (Green<\/strong>) and Gavin<\/strong> (Gough<\/strong>), and most of all I want to thank Mark<\/strong> (Harlan<\/strong>) for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank all the student-athletes, staff, and alumni who expressed faith in me and pushed me to pursue this opportunity. In addition, my wife and I have called Salt Lake City home for many years, and we really know what this community, city, and University have to offer. I know that our teams can be at the top of the Pac-12 and national rankings every year, and I\u2019m excited to start. GO UTES!\u201d<\/p>\n

Persson helped the Utes break four school records at NCAAs this year. His pupils include Cooper DeRyk<\/strong>, a second-team All-American in 2020-21, and Nick Soedel,<\/strong> Utah\u2019s first Pac-12 medalist (bronze) in 2013.<\/p>\n

Persson spent three seasons as the head coach of the University of Toledo from 2016-19.<\/p>\n

The native of Malmo, Sweden, was a distinguished college and international swimmer. He was a 13-time All-American in college, first at the University of Arizona and then at University of Tennessee. He was a team captain at the latter, where he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant. He obtained his bachelor\u2019s degree and a pair of master\u2019s degrees in Knoxville.<\/p>\n

Persson represented Sweden in the 2008 Olympics, helping the team finish fifth in the 400 free relay. He was 13th in the 100 free in Beijing. A 16-time national champion and national record-holder, Persson won a gold medal in the 400 free relay at the 2008 European Championships and a bronze in the event in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an incredible level of talent in our candidate pool and attracted the interest of many fantastic coaches for this search,\u201d Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan<\/strong> said. \u201cThrough this process it was clear that Jonas has a defined strategy to continue to build upon the success of our swimming and diving program, and a focus on recruiting and developing even greater competitive excellence. His experience not only as an elite collegiate and Olympic swimmer, but also his leadership qualities and ability to bring out the best in our student-athletes, made him the clear choice for this role. I\u2019d like to thank our committee, chaired by sport supervisor Gavin Gough, and consisting of Deputy Athletics Director Charmelle Green and Faculty Athletics Representative Karen Paisley, for their tremendous work on this search.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"