By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
University of Florida breaststroker and NCAA runner-up Anita Bottazzo has entered the transfer portal.
Hers is an exclamation point to the women’s NCAA transfer portal season, which for D1 ends on Friday. Swimmers have to be in the portal by Friday to be eligible to compete right away at their new program, but there is no hard deadline for athletes to make their transfer decision.
Bottazzo explained her decision with an Instagram post on Thursday morning.
View this post on Instagram
“The past two years have been truly incredible for me. I came to the US at 19 years old, knowing very little english [sic] and still discovering who I was. Now, at 22, I look back and honestly don’t have the words to fully describe this journey or the love I feel for all of you.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to represent such a historic program and to grow both in and out of the pool. Thank you to all the coaches, my teammates, the pros and the support staff for taking care of me and being such an important part of this experience.
After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to do what’s best for my future and enter the transfer portal.
Being a Gator will always mean so much to me and I will carry that pride and love with me forever.
Thank you for everything
-Anita”
Bottazzo had a massive breakout swim at the start of the NCAA season on October 10, posting a time of 56.87 in the 100 breaststroke in a dual meet against Virginia. That time was the fastest in the country to that point and was a six-tenths improvement on her previous lifetime best.
She went 56.91 at the UGA Fall Invite a month later, and while she didn’t recapture quite that level in championship season (57.11 at SECs, 57.00 at NCAAs), she was good enough to tie with Tennessee sophomore McKenzie Siroky at NCAAs.
That followed a long course breakthrough that saw her swim 1:05.61 at the World Championships to qualify for the final, where she added time to place 6th. Her semi-finals time would have won a bronze medal if she repeated it.
Lifetime Bests:
100 breast – 65.87 200 breast – 2:06.97 200 IM – 2:01.23 50 free – 23.04 100 free – 49.93While really a pure breaststroker, she does have sleeper free relay potential for the right program.
The women’s breaststroke races, especially the 100, are lined up for big competition for years to come. Led by freshman champion Eneli Jefimova from NC State, the top six finishers at NCAAs were all freshmen or sophomores.
Bottazzo also finished 7th in the 200 breaststroke, which was a much more veteran race: five A-Finalists from NCAAs are graduating.
See also: How Italian Champion Anita Bottazzo Found Balance in Swimming & Life at FloridaAmong top programs that could use a breaststroker are the defending champions from the University of Virginia. Their two best, Emma Weber (7th at NCAAs) and Zoe Skirboll (13th at NCAAs), are both graduating, as is Aimee Canny, who didn’t swim the race at NCAAs but would have scored with her season best of 58.30.
In fact, Virginia graduates every sub-minute breaststroker from last season. Rising sophomore Sophia Umstead is the best returner at 1:00.17, a small improvement on her high school best of 1:00.22.
The Cavaliers bring in Smilte Plytnykaite from Lithuania, who has similar long course bests of 1:06.86/2:31.76. They’ve also had a knack for turning swimmers who weren’t pure breaststrokers into very good ones.
But Virginia isn’t the only top team with a gap there. #4 Cal, #9 NC State, and ironically #7 Indiana, the former home of American women’s breaststroking, also didn’t have scorers in either breaststroke race at last year’s NCAA Championship meet.
The domestic class of 2026 doesn’t have a ton of elite breaststrokers beyond Molly Sweeney and Eliza Wallace, both headed to Tennessee. Avery Klamfoth is headed to Texas, and rising star Kayda Geyer (59.61/2:08.91) is on a path less taken to Colorado State.
That leaves a lot of programs that will be looking for a breaststroker of Bottazzo’s caliber to fill out their rosters for next season.
Bottazzo is a native of Venice, Italy and was back home earlier this month at the Italian national championships. There she finished 2nd in the 50 breast (30.20) and 3rd in the 100 breast (1:06.89) in long course meters.
She studies Biotechnology.
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