Greg Meehan – 7 Months In: The Big Takeaways (Swim Brief Podcast)

Greg Meehan - USA Swimming’s National Team Director - was interviewed by Chris DeSantis on The Swim Brief this week.

Here are my notes:

Big Picture

• Greg’s about 7 months into the USA Swimming job, busier than he’s ever been, and drowning in meetings – way more than he expected.

• He and his crew (Yuri Sugiyama, Kim Williams, Brendan Hansen) are trying to run USA Swimming like coaches, not bureaucrats – “from the pool deck” instead of from an office.

What He Learned From Worlds & Data Analysis

• Worlds was hard to read because a ton of athletes were sick, so the results are skewed.

• Nationals, though, were crazy fast and one of the best in years, so they’re using those results a lot when they analyze where the U.S. really stands.

• He’s big on data and race analysis:

  • The U.S. is getting beat 5m into the wall and 15m out.

  • Issues:

    • Underwaters not as sharp.

    • Decelerating into the last 5m of the wall.

    • People breathing immediately off the turn and losing speed.

• He thinks Americans have always prided themselves on turns and underwaters, so this data surprised him – and now he’s pushing coaches to refocus on that.

• The rest of the world hasn’t caught up - they’ve passed us.

Team USA Culture

• He thinks Team USA is great at becoming a team, but:

  • They haven’t had enough non-meet time together.

  • Meets feel like “speed dating”: quick camp, quick competition, then done.

• So they created:

  • A national team coaches webinar (100+ coaches showed up).

  • A national team onboarding camp at the OTC tied into Golden Goggles:

    • 80+ athletes came.

    • Medical screening, USOPC resources, training, meetings, plus time to just hang out.

• Goal: athletes feel like they belong to two teams:

  1. Their club/college team

  2. Team USA

Decentralized System is a Strength and a Challenge

• He thinks USA’s decentralized system is a huge advantage:

  • Tons of different training models.

  • No top-down “this is exactly how you must train.”

• But that makes it harder to align everyone around big goals like LA 2028.

• His role: “set the table” so everyone feels like they’re part of something bigger than just their own group.

We Aren’t Racing Long Course Enough

• He feels strongly that Americans aren’t racing enough long course.

• Pros especially: no dual meets, no college invites.

• He likes the World Cup circuit:

  • Great racing.

  • Short sessions (8 finals).

  • He doesn’t think fast short course racing in October harms long course performance.

• He wants more long course reps:

  • Hard to be great in June/July if your first LC race is in April.

  • Data they looked at backs this up.

From the Top Down

• Officially he’s over the national team (about 120 swimmers), and Brendan handles national junior team (about 90).

• But he wants to push learnings downward:

  • Example: understand the path of someone like Gretchen Walsh (club → UVA → world record).

  • Share with age-group coaches:

    • Lots of kicking.

    • Don’t over-snorkel everything.

    • Teach breathing and fundamentals well.

• Idea: show 12-&-under/14-&-under coaches what the best in the world did on the way up.

Hiring Yuri & Kim

Greg basically said: this job was too big for one person, so they created new roles.

• Yuri Sugiyama:

  • Big on relationships and “on-deck” feel.

  • Taking a larger role in open water and distance, plus a performance staff.

• Kim Williams:

  • Ex-athlete of his, then assistant at Stanford.

  • Super organized / systems thinker.

  • Handles selection procedures, coach selection frameworks, funding models, and oversees operations.

• Overall philosophy for the whole group:

  • Every decision must pass one test:
    “Will this help us win medals?”
    If not, it drops down the priority list.

What Athletes & Coaches Are Asking For

From all the site visits and meetings, the big needs he keeps hearing:

• Support & resources:

  • Connections to nutrition, sports med, labs, diagnostics.

  • Better access to USOPC and medical support.

• Money:

  • Prize money, travel assistance, monthly stipends.

  • He says they’re already:

    • Increasing some travel assistance.

    • Increasing pieces of performance funding for pros.

• Site visits:

  • They’ve met ~55–56 national team athletes individually in six weeks.

  • On deck for multiple practices at each site.

  • Coaches actually want feedback, and most are open to suggestions.

  • They’re looking for trends: common strengths/weaknesses in how the best train.

His Personal Headspace

• He knows this job is exhausting and not something he wants to do forever.

• Long term, he wants to coach again someday.

• He still sees himself as more about the art of coaching (people, motivation, culture) than purely the science.

• He uses trusted coaches (Yuri, Todd, Dave, Carol, Braden, etc.) as his support network.

• He’s realistic about how hard it is to measure his impact:

  • When you’re not writing workouts every day, you don’t see direct cause/effect.

  • So he focuses on:

    • Filling “gaps” for athletes.

    • Creating better structures and support.

    • Trusting that if coaches/athletes do their jobs, and he removes friction, they’ll go faster.

• He’s genuinely in love with the Olympic movement & USA Swimming, and that’s what gets him out of bed:

  • He wants to look back after LA 2028 at a collective win, not a personal one.