Friday, Aug 6, 2021
The Rider alumnus led Team USA to 18 total medals and a first-place finish
by Adam Grybowski
The U.S. women's swimming team concluded the Olympic Games in Tokyo with a leading 18 medals, including three gold. The team was led by head coach Greg Meehan ’01, a former swimmer and Rider University Athletics Hall of Famer.
“We got a really, really strong showing with a little less experienced team that we’ve had at the Olympic Games in the past,” said Meehan, according to an article on teamusa.org. “We had two medalists in six different individual events, which is a lot.”
In Tokyo, Meehan once again coached swimming great Katie Ledecky, who added to her medal count. She now has 10 Olympic medals, including seven gold. Meehan coached the world-record holder as an assistant at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games as well as, for the past five years, at Stanford, where he is a three-time NCAA Swimming Coach of the Year. He has led the Cardinals to back-to-back-to-back national championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The 2017 title was the university’s first in 19 years.
At Rider, Meehan graduated with a bachelor’s in mathematics and secondary education. As a student, he swam the second-fastest 200 backstroke, the third-fastest 100 backstroke and the fifth-fastest 1,000 freestyle at that time. He was a four-time All-Academic team member and swam on the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) champion relay team. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rider Athletics Hall of Fame.
“Greg has an incredible passion for the sport and extensive experience coaching some of the country's best athletes to the highest level in our sport,” said Rider Swimming & Diving Head Coach Steve Fletcher, whose own coaching prowess has resulted in Rider’s men's swimming and diving team capturing nine straight MAAC Championships.
Between the men and the women, Team USA won 30 medals in swimming at the Olympic Games, outpacing a competitive Australia, which finished in second place with 20 total medals.