By Jake Bridges on SwimSwam
Olympic gold medalist Olivia Smoliga has announced that the next chapter of her swimming career will take place at Texas Ford Aquatics.
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“These last eight months have been extraordinary,” Smoliga said, referencing time spent away from swimming. “I’m not surprised they led me back to the pool, but I’m in awe of the path getting here.”
The 31-year-old has only competed once, at the Toronto leg of the 2025 World Cup, since the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.
“Maybe it was from this space that I could hear myself better and shed the things that weren’t mine,” Smoliga said in her post. “I thought I’d end up shedding my identity as an athlete completely, when really, I just became aware of the ways that I would block me from myself.”
Smoliga will be looking to channel these insights into a comeback similar to the one she mounted in 2023, this time under the tutelage of Texas Ford Aquatics pro group coach Coley Stickels.
Smoliga moves to Frisco from Tempe, Arizona, where she trained with Bob Bowman’s pro group starting in 2021.
Stickels has coached multiple high-profile swimmers throughout his career, including Daiya Seto, Beryl Gastaldello, Ryan Held, and Blake Pieroni. Stickels coached at Indiana University from 2017-2019, and served as head coach at the University of Alabama for 18 months from April 2019 until December 2020.
Alabama performed well at the 2020 SEC Championships under his leadership, but he resigned in December to prioritize training athletes for international competition.
Smoliga introduced herself at the national and international level slightly earlier, bursting onto the scene at the 2012 Short Course World Championships, where she out-touched Katinka Hosszu to take gold in the 100 backstroke. She then committed to the University of Georgia, where she became the NCAA Champion in the 50 freestyle in her freshman year under the tutelage of Jack Bauerle.
While training with Bauerle, Smoliga won two Olympic medals, including a gold medal in the women’s 4×100 medley relay at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She also owns five long course World Championship medals, is a three-time individual NCAA Champion, and won a record-setting eight gold medals at the 2018 Short Course World Championships.
After joining Bob Bowman’s ASU pro group in 2021, Smoliga went on to qualify for relay spots in the women’s 4×100 free relay and the mixed 4×100 medley relay at the 2023 U.S. International Team Trials, and took home two silver medals in those events at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.
Training under Stickels, Smoliga will see a stark change in training philosophy: from Bowman’s higher yardage system to a more sprint-oriented approach. It will be interesting to see if the 31-year-old can leverage the change in methodology into another career resurgence.
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