The University of Virginia Swimming Dynasty: A Legacy of Excellence

The University of Virginia (UVA) has emerged as a dominant force in collegiate swimming, particularly on the women's side. Their journey to national prominence is a story of innovation, talent, and a unique approach to training.

From Humble Beginnings to National Powerhouse

Swimming and diving was introduced at the University of Virginia in 1925, when it was only a men's sport. It was introduced as a women's sport in 1974. Both the men's and women's teams have been successful in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with the men having won sixteen ACC championships, and the women twenty.

The program's ascent gained significant momentum with the arrival of coach Todd DeSorbo in August 2017. DeSorbo, who self-describes as a "new school" coach, has ushered in a period of disruptive dominance in NCAA women's swimming. The Hoos, once in over their heads on the national stage, will be going for their third straight national championship this week in Knoxville.

The Rise of a Dynasty

The Virginia Cavaliers Swimming and Diving teams represent the University of Virginia in all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Swimming and Diving Events. In 2021, the women's side won the NCAA Championship, a first for any Atlantic Coast Conference team, and finished in the national top 10 for a third consecutive season. The men's side also finished in the national top 10 for the second consecutive season. The women won five consecutive NCAA Championships in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. The five team titles are tied with Auburn for fourth all-time in Division I women's swimming and diving history.

The "Magic" and the Math

DeSorbo emphasizes a unique blend of unconventional methods and data-driven analysis. One example of the unconventional methods is team traditions. A day earlier and 180 miles away, Walsh dove into the University of Virginia's home pool one final time before leaving for the conference meet. She sank to the bottom for a handstand. One, two, three steps … seven in all. Ask coach Todd DeSorbo and he'll tell you why: The process transfers the hard work and preparation from home to competition."It's the magic," DeSorbo says simply.

Alongside these traditions are the micro adjustments prescribed by Dr. Ken Ono, a mathematician at UVA who is hellbent on minimizing inefficiencies in swimmers' strokes. The angle of an arm as it enters the water. The power of a kick as it pushes off a wall. The efficiency of a breath as a swimmer heads for home. "Mathematical optimization," Ono says simply.

Ono's approach involves using accelerometers, gyroscopes, and high-definition video to mathematically render every swimming activity. This data is then used to identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing dolphin kicks or breaststroke technique. Ono moved to the University of Virginia in 2019 and began working with DeSorbo and the swim program soon after. Paige Madden, who would win four NCAA titles as a senior in 2021, benefitted from a simple breathing change. Ono noticed that she was consistently generating twice the acceleration on her right side as her left. The fix, or micro adjustment, as Ono calls it, was to have Madden breathe to the right on occasion during her warmups for a race "to get more used to getting the body in that fully rotated position, to help her catch water better," says one of Ono's assistants, Jerry Lu. Lu grew up swimming at the same club as Wilson and Katie Ledecky and Phoebe Bacon. He was already a student at UVA when Ono arrived, and he jumped on board.

World-Class Talent

This championship algorithm, of course, has otherworldly talent at its base. Alex Walsh is a veritable "Phelpsian" powerhouse. Her younger sister Gretchen Walsh is a versatile world-class sprinter. Kate Douglass is one of the most dominant NCAA swimmers in history.

Gretchen Walsh

Gretchen Walsh knows she needs to come up for air. It's the 50 freestyle, the fastest race of the meet, and she is kicking hard. With her long arms and powerful underwater dolphin kicks, Gretchen often flirts with the 15-meter mark -- the line of demarcation where swimmers have to be above water or risk disqualification. The red buoy that marks the line isn't visible from underwater; there's not a blaring red laser. So Gretchen has to know when it's time to pop up. But cutting it as close as possible gives her the best chance to win; she has seen the math and celebrated the results: 12 dolphin kicks (at least until she tapers) equals victory. "I come up right at the 15," she says. "Some people have a little something to say about that, but it's clean. It's legal."

Her time at the ACC championships is good for a conference, NCAA and American record, exactly .01 faster than her teammate Douglass and Gretchen's first individual record of the sort. 9 - Gretchen Walsh and her sister, Alex, now own nine individual NCAA titles each, becoming just the sixth and seventh swimmers in NCAA history to reach that milestone.

Read also: History of the Block 'M'

Kate Douglass

One early January morning, Douglass takes a breath as a hodgepodge playlist thumps through the weight room. The room buzzes around her as teammates chat between sets. Douglass, however, is focused and efficient. She stares at the 42-inch stack of soft-sided cylindrical "boxes." She started at 36 inches this morning and has decided to go up for her final two sets. Almost everyone else on the women's team has done the 30-inch jump. She's the only one to try for 42 inches. Douglass bends her knees before exploding upwards. Like her strokes in the pool, the movement is graceful, almost a glide. Though it's evident there's power behind the movement, she looks like she's floating up to the top box. "In the past year, I've started to be able to do that," Douglass says. "It's pretty fun to do the same stuff as the boys."

Douglass ended up at UVA partially because of FOMO. The Pelham, New York, native was the second-ranked recruit in her class by SwimSwam. Her parents, who had attended college in Virginia, thought UVA might be a good fit for her. But Douglass really started paying attention when her friends and fellow swimmers Maddie Donohoe and Ella Nelson committed to the school.

At the 2022 NCAA championships, she became the first swimmer in Division I history to win three individual titles across three different strokes when she won the 50 free, 100 fly and 200 breast in Atlanta. She also set NCAA and American records in all three of those races. To cap an incredible year, she became a world champion in the 200-meter IM and the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2022 FINA Short Course World Championships. Douglass also has a stack of medals from her relay participation.

As her college career comes to a close, Douglass has already etched her name all over the UVA and NCAA record books. She sits in a chair contemplating the mark she's leaving on a program and sport she loves, and Douglass is just as surprised as anyone else at the athlete she's become. "I guess just coming into college, I didn't think I'd leave as big of a legacy as it seems I'm going to," she says. "Doing something like that is always just a pretty cool feeling I guess."

Alex Walsh

Alex Walsh has made small, impactful changes to her butterfly stroke thanks to Ono's observations. Prior to swimming at UVA, Alex didn't swim a ton of butterfly. Now it's much more of an emphasis for her as someone who swims the IMs and who, by the way, is also the reigning NCAA 200 butterfly champion. The suggestion for Alex was to drive her knees more forcefully into the water. The displacement of the water causes more propulsion in her stroke, ultimately making her faster. "They tell me to pretend I'm kneeing someone I don't like," Alex says with a laugh. "He was telling me all these things, and they seemed such simple fixes, and even though they're habits that you have to establish, they're not hard habits." 9 - Gretchen Walsh and her sister, Alex, now own nine individual NCAA titles each, becoming just the sixth and seventh swimmers in NCAA history to reach that milestone.

Read also: Legacy of Fordham University

Training Philosophy: Quality over Quantity

DeSorbo sees himself as more of a new-school coach, swapping the old-school swimming mores of drilling yardage for greater resistance and fewer yards. If you compare our program to most other programs in the country, we would be on the lower end," DeSorbo says. "We take a much more quality-over-quantity approach. Old-school has worked really well for some, but I think that kids are different these days than they used to be. I don't think they are -- I know they are."

This approach involves incorporating various forms of resistance training into the swimmers' workouts, using tools like belts, weights, socks, chutes, paddles, fins, racks, towers, and cords.

A State-of-the-Art Facility

The University of Virginia Aquatic and Fitness Center opened in 1996. This building was a big accomplishment for the team, previously one of two national top 20 teams without an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The Aquatic and Fitness Center was built not only with a 50-meter Olympic-sized pool, but also with a warm-water pool, whirlpool and sauna, classrooms, fitness areas, locker rooms, a bookstore, and a dining area. The $18.5 million facility features a 50-meter pool that converts to a short course 25-yard pool, as well as state of the art lane lines and gutters. Through either entrance into the Aquatic & Fitness Center, one of the first things gym-goers are greeted by is the display celebrating Virginia swimming and diving’s ACC, NCAA and Olympic champions.

The Club Swim Impact

But a legacy of women’s swimming extends beyond the Cavaliers’ varsity team. In the last weekend of March, Virginia’s club swim team traveled to Mesa, Ariz. to compete at the 2025 College Club Swimming Nationals. “This meet marked a massive, massive expansion,” Anna Bartlett, president of Club Swim at U.Va. That expansion is a shining victory for College Club Swimming. According to Bartlett, CCS has been working on the accessibility of college club swimming. CCS was founded just over 20 years ago in 2003 and has grown tremendously, with 219 teams now registered. At Nationals in Mesa, 132 clubs competed.

Cotton noted that part of Virginia’s growth comes from the closeness the club has with the varsity squad. “The varsity team’s success is establishing U.Va. even more so as just a phenomenal swim school altogether,” Cotton said. “As swimmers often do, you take the time to explore the [college] programs offered and the supplementary aspects of the sport that are offered. You come to realize that U.Va. This ripple effect between club and varsity swimming has begun to impact the college decisions of some students who are keen on participating in club swimming.

As a whole, Virginia club swim is still on an upward trajectory after its four women’s national championships. In 2024, the men’s team placed 13th at CCS Nationals, but finished in seventh this season. Virginia finished in third place overall with its combined men’s and women’s score.

tags: #university #of #virginia #swimming #history