Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

A new 10K open water race will be added to the official swimming schedule at the International University Sports Federation’s (FISU) World University Games.

Given the fact that most of the world’s top open water swimmers are currently between the ages of 17 – 26 (with the exception of a pair of German world champions Thomas Lurz and Angela Maurer), the World University Games 10K will most likely become one of the top three most competitive 10 km races in the world, nearly on par with the Olympic 10K and the World Championship 10K races.

Rick Walker of Southern Illinois University (coach of Kirsten Groome and Mazen Aziz), Tim Murphy of Harvard University (shown above, coach of Alex Meyer) and Jim Richardson of the University of Michigan (coach of Emily Brunemann and Emily Hanson) are examples of three established college coaches who actively support their pool swimmers to compete in the highest echelon of competitive open water swimming.

But with the addition of the World University Games 10K, there will undoubtedly be more college coaches following the footsteps of these trailblazing coaches.

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