Olympic Silver Medalist Emma Weyant Transferring to University of Florida
One of the top 400 IMers in the United States will have a new collegiate home this fall. Emma Weyant, who took silver in the 400 IM at the Tokyo Olympics and bronze in the event at this summer’s World Championships, is heading to the University of Florida. Weyant, 20, competed this past year at the University of Virginia. She announced the transfer in an Instagram post Sunday.
Weyant is originally from Sarasota, Fla., just a few hours south of Gainesville. She will join a program led by coach Anthony Nesty that has produced some of the strongest middle-distance and distance swimmers in the country over the past few years, including Bobby Finke, Kieran Smith and Trey Freeman. The move to Gainesville has worked out well for Katie Ledecky, who won four gold medals at the recent World Championships, and Weyant will be hoping for similarly successful results.
At last year’s Olympic Trials, Weyant produced a come-from-behind win in the 400 IM to become the first female swimmer to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, and she nearly chased down Yui Ohashi in the Olympic final before earning silver. After the Olympics, Weyant began her collegiate career at the University of Virginia after deferring for a year to train for Olympic Trials. At her first NCAA Championships, Weyant was second in the 500-yard free and fourth in the 400-yard IM, and she later qualified for Worlds in her signature event and grabbed bronze in Budapest.