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50 Years of Women's Varsity Athletics: Swimming & Diving
4/21/2022 12:34:00 PM | Swimming & Diving, Athletics
Legacy Talk with Olympian Ashley Twichell
Duke is celebrating 50 years of varsity women's athletics in 2021-22. This is the sixth installment of a year-long GoDuke The Magazine series reflecting on the Blue Devils' 13 women's sports programs. For more from the university, see dukengwsd.com/dukewomens50 or #DukeWomens50 on social media.
Ashley Twichell represented the U.S. last summer at the Tokyo Olympics, taking seventh place in the 10,000-meter open water swim 10 years after graduating from Duke. A long-distance freestyle specialist, she won the ACC championship in the 1650 free as a sophomore and senior, and competed in the NCAA Championships all four years, with a best finish of fifth in the 1650 as a senior. Her school records in the 500, 1000 and 1650 free all still stand. Tokyo was her first Olympics, but she competed in the World Championships four times in open water competition and earned five medals, including gold in the 5000 meters in 2017. She also took silver in the 800 meters in the pool at the 2016 worlds. At age 32, Ashley became the oldest U.S. swimmer to make an Olympic debut in 2021. Not officially retired from the sport, she and her husband reside in Cary, N.C., and are expecting their first child in May.
You started going to Olympic Trials early in your Duke career and then finally competed for the Olympic Team a decade after your graduation. Can you discuss what it was like for you to put that much time into pursuing the Olympic dream?
My goal and really big dream for my freshman year was to do well at ACCs and NCAAs and perform well as a team, but really it was to make the Olympic Trials. It definitely wasn’t to make the Olympic Team at that point. It took me several tries and a lot of different meets. I came really close, and Dan Colella who is the coach there now and was my coach, was with me for all of those. I missed really narrowly a few times, and I still vividly remember when I finally qualified it was at a meet in Charlotte and Dan was there and was just as excited for me as I was for myself. That’s just the kind of coach he was and is, and that was just so exciting for me. It’s crazy that I went on to three more Olympic Trials after that. That was never really the plan.
WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING FILE
» Duke’s first season of varsity swimming & diving competition for women was 1971-72, under the direction of Duke Hall of Famer Jack Persons, who had been coaching the men’s team since the 1930s. There have been only three other head coaches for Duke women’s swimming: Bill Barton (1976-78), followed by Bob Thompson (1979-2005) and current coach Dan Colella who just completed his 17th season at the helm.
» Duke’s first all-star was Nancy Hogshead, who won four ACC titles in 1981 and went on to win four medals at the 1984 Olympics (three gold, one silver). She was the first woman inducted in the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame.
» The program has produced two other Olympians — diver Abby Johnston (silver in 2012, finalist in 2016); and distance freestyler Ashley Twichell.
» Johnston stands as Duke’s lone NCAA champion, taking the 3-meter diving crown in 2011. She also owns the most ACC titles (5) in program history.
» The Duke women have had at least one NCAA qualifier every year but one since 2008. The Blue Devils had two first-team All-Americas this past season: Sarah Foley (200 individual medley) and Margo O’Meara (1-meter diving).
To continue pursuing it 10 years after graduation and then to finally make it for the last Olympics, what did that mean to you and what was that decade like?
After my senior year NCAAs, I felt like I wasn’t ready to be done. I still loved the sport and felt like I still had more to give. Dan and Dawn (Kane, former Duke assistant coach) were so encouraging of me to continue pursuing the sport which I so appreciated, and they continued to nudge me along to keep pursuing it after college, which wasn’t really the norm back then. Dan set up an introduction with Coach (Bill) Rose in Mission Viejo (California), which is where I moved after college to continue training. I absolutely loved it out there and qualified for my first international team.
The summer after college is when I first narrowly missed making the Olympic Team for 2012 so that is really when the dream to become an Olympian was put in place for me. I never thought I would be swimming 10 years after college. I always tried to take it year-by-year, as long as I was loving it and continuing to improve. Of course there were highs and lows along the way but every single year I loved it and I feel so blessed that was my job for 10 years — traveling the world, getting to compete in so many amazing places and making so many friends with teammates, coaches and competitors. It was really, really special.
What was the Olympic experience itself like for you in Tokyo last summer?
It was a really cool experience. Of course there were a lot of covid protocols in place, which led to it being a little different. We couldn’t do much in the country — we were either in our hotel in the village or at venues. But Japan did an amazing job making it as special as they could with everything that had to go into place. USA Swimming did a fantastic job as well keeping us all safe. We went to Hawaii for two weeks before the Games with the entire swim team, both pool and open water, for a training camp and I know I’ll always remember that. It was really special to be able to spend that time with the whole Olympic Team and having a little bit of normalcy for the first time in two years. Then going to Tokyo and getting to compete in the Olympics was really cool. Getting to represent my country is always an honor and to do it on the highest stage was really special.
What did it entail for you several years ago to make the transition from being a pool swimmer to an open water swimmer, and how did you even get interested in that?
I always loved swimming in the ocean. When we would vacation growing up, my dad and I would go for ocean swims just to stay in the water. I would do Swim Across America every year, which wasn’t really a race, but the one I did was a four-mile swim in the Long Island Sound and I loved that. The opportunity presented itself the summer after my junior year at Duke to go to open water nationals out at Long Beach and I figured I’d give it a try. It went pretty terribly — the water was freezing and I wasn’t used to that distance. But I gave it another shot in the 5K two days later and that was a lot better.
My training never really changed that much. I continued to do all my training in the pool whether I was focusing on pool or open water. But just learning the sport, it’s definitely a whole different beast than pool swimming. You have so many different variables that go into open water in terms of current, water temperature, fresh water or salt water, you don’t have your own lane like you do in the pool. So it took some getting used to, but I loved it. And even when my main focus was open water, I would still go to pool meets. I felt like it really helped me to have that balance and keep things fresh. I loved being able to do both, and I love the unknown of open water racing.
Thinking back to your career as a Duke student-athlete over a decade ago, what are some of your enduring memories of being a Duke swimmer?
I loved my time there. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was four of the best years of my life. I made lifelong friends. Five of the bridesmaids in my wedding were girls I swam with in my class. One still lives close by and I see her a bunch. Just having those friendships is so special. And the coaching staff, Dan is still the same and Dawn now works in the athletic department and is still a big part of my life. Those relationships are amazing. The ACC Championships were my favorite meets ever — I would do anything to go back and do those meets again. I think the relationships were the biggest thing, and being able to represent Duke University. I’m still so proud to be able to say that.
Any special feeling to being a part of the first 50 years of women’s sports at a school where women’s athletics have become so accomplished?
One of the things I love most about Duke is the size of the whole student body and the athletes (population). At least for me it was the perfect size of not being so small that you saw every single person on campus every day, but not being so big that you got lost in the mix. I feel the student-athlete population, and in particular the women’s student-athlete population, was really close-knit. My first two years of school I roomed with a lacrosse player so I became close with her team. Those friendships and relationships developed across sports, not just with your own sports team, and I think that is really special and unique. We would go to different sporting events and support those. I enjoyed it so much while I was there and I definitely appreciate it even more now being 10 years removed.
50 YEARS OF WOMEN'S VARSITY ATHLETICS
“How exciting to be celebrating 50 years of women’s athletics here at Duke University. Having two daughters of my own who are extremely active, I am so glad to know they have the opportunity to participate in sport, and that has not always been the case. As a result of Title IX, our women have the opportunity to pursue both their academic and athletic goals here at Duke. We look forward to celebrating this special anniversary with our team, athletic department, university and fans. Thank you, Duke University.”
– Dan Colella, head swimming coach
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