Not really surprised, got a link? I'm assuming it's on Swimswam. IIRC, Simone announced that she's going pro a week or so ago, and will train with the pro group out of stanford. Curious if Ledecky is doing the same thing.

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JasoninHalifax wrote:

Not really surprised, got a link? I'm assuming it's on Swimswam. IIRC, Simone announced that she's going pro a week or so ago, and will train with the pro group out of stanford. Curious if Ledecky is doing the same thing.

Link

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I get that this means she can earn money from sponsorship deals and endorsements, which is really awesome, but... is there a downside to turning pro? Why didn't she do this earlier?

Note: I've only just started following swimming as a sport, so I know jack shit about it.

She wanted to have the college student/swimmer experience. Can't do that if turn pro. That's the reason we'll never see Michael Andrews at NCAA's.

Ahh, no more NCAA meets for her, then?

A few reasons. I don't believe the collegiate squad is allowed to train with the pros. For most (this doesn't apply to Katie) the competitiveness at the collegiate meets is second to none, and the NCAA's is the single most competitive meet in the world. You get the top tier from all over the world, without country limits.

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Some of the videos I have seen lately show pro and NCAA swimmers training together during the college season.





Cody Miller and Will Licon are 2 pros ... sure I can find more




Definitely a mixed college and pro workout at UGA

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
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It's all good.... Stanford has Taylor Ruck coming on board in the fall.

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___________________________________________
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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

The rules are a bit fuzzy, but most institutions allow pros who are alumni(ish for katie, missy, etc) to train with the college kids. I was a "volunteer assistant coach" for my post grad year training with the college kids.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

That was the impression that I got. They may be able to have some mixed sessions, but it sounded like they have to be 2 separate squads.

I could be wrong though.

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Thanks for the clarification.

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Didn't Phelps train at ASU?

He and Bob set up a pro group at ASU, and I think Michael actually did a little bit of assistant coaching with them?? But as far as I can remember he wasn't training with the college kids.

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As I said, fuzzy. I believe there was a separate post grad group at ASU, though he trained with the Michigan guys when bob was there, but he was "in school" taking 1 class in 3 years I think. Similar to how Missy will train at Georgia - she's ostensibly taking some classes.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

NCAA rules are rather byzantine.

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Good for her. She rolled the dice a bit by swimming in NCAA for those two years. it is an experience young people should have. Just that she is in a very unique circumstance, you got millions of dollars just waiting to go into your bank account and if you get hurt, injured, or have a blow up, then it all goes away. A lot of baseball pitchers have to go through this along with football players. It could all go up in smoke very easily for them, so perhaps get the $$$ and if something happens you can always go back to school. Or in Ledecky's case, sounds like she will finish school and just not be able to swim for the team. It wasn't a great meet for her to go out on, probably her worst in a long time, so probably a good note to end her amateur career on, it can be written off as a bad taper..

I think we will also be hearing the Dressel announcement very soon too. Probably sorting through all the offers and hopefully using his position for a bidding war...

I’d be surprised it is a money issue considering her family is worth billion(s) of dollars. I wouldn’t think money would be all that much of a contributing factor, more so a move to begin preparing for the next olympics.

It doesn't matter that the family has a lot of money. I dont care who you are, but if you are someone like her who takes pride in what she does as it is obvious she does, she would want to make her own way financially. Nice to have a back up, but no doubt she would prefer to pay her own way in life now that she has gotten such a good start in life.

Mark Spitz also had a lot of outside money(married very rich) but he still made his 20 to 30 million and I'm sure it made him feel a lot better about himself. The swim times and awards are nice to have to look back on and feed your sense of worth, but if someone else has to pay your way in life, that would take a bit away from it..

I was just at Stanford over the weekend, and a major factor in this decision that people forget about is the NCAA limit on hours that you're allowed to train per week. If it's an "offseason" for a particular sport, I think that number drops down to 8 hours per week. Katie will be gearing up to race multiple 1500s, 800s, 400s, 200s, and possibly some relays at Tokyo, and I know that for elite distance swimmers that hour limit in the offseason can be detrimental (especially since most people agree that long course racing requires a bigger aerobic base). I know the Ledecky family very well, and money is definitely not an issue, so this decision is more related to having complete freedom with her training hours while finishing her degree.

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20 and 8 are the hour limits, but there are countless ways around those with ‘voluntary’ practices being just one of them. There were no coaches typically at weight training and dry land work and we were over those limits when I swam and I was a sprint freestyler and butterflyer. The distance folks were even higher.

It was pretty obvious from her demeanor in her post-1650 interview that she wasn't coming back for another year of NCAA's.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Nope

Well, that depend on what NCAA sport you do. I know D1 athletes that both have sponsorship and can pocket prize money. NCAA does not treat athletes the same.
Usually, the more the coaches and staff make in a sport, the harder rules the students have to follow.

https://sports.yahoo.com/...html?.tsrc=fauxdal//

Here is another take on her going pro and the backwards thinking of the NCAA

I pretty much agree with all of it, who exactly are they trying to protect anymore??