Preparation Has Long Been a Key to Success for Anthony Nesty, Set to Lead U.S. Men in Paris

Swimming World July 2019 - Q and A with Anthony Nesty

Preparation Has Long Been a Key to Success for Anthony Nesty, Set to Lead U.S. Men in Paris

Gold-medal swimmer Anthony Nesty (1988) is eager to take on what he calls the gold-medal job of coaching as he leads the United States men’s team at the Paris Olympics.

BY MATTHEW DE GEORGE

All of the accolades, all of the superlatives, all of the firsts bring Anthony Nesty back to what got him here.

To be the first Black man to coach the U.S. national team at an Olympics or to be the first Black man to have won an Olympic swimming gold medal—all of that came from his steadfast preparation. So when asked what those firsts signify to him or the emotions that come with adding yet to his CV, Nesty tellingly finds his way back to the controllable comfort that is his process.

“As an athlete, then as a coach, it’s always, ‘Can you do the job?,’” Nesty says. “Can he perform at a high level as a swimmer? And then when you do, people go, ‘Wow, if he can do it, I can do it.’ And for me, I’ve got to do the best job I can because of the position I’m in.

“It’s not having a chip on your shoulder. It’s just doing all you can to make sure the staff is working together and the kids are at a good spot mentally and physically.”

Nesty’s résumé shows a steadfast devotion to that process. Through international stints with his native Suriname, the Cayman Islands and as an assistant with the U.S….through the head coaching job for the U.S. at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and an assistant’s role in Fukuoka a year later and at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021…and through nearly three decades at the University of Florida, Nesty has risen to each new level in turn.

EIGHT IS GREAT

Nesty’s arrival in Paris as the U.S. Olympic men’s team coach will mark just shy of 40 years on the international stage. It’s the eighth time in the last 10 Olympic Games that the 56-year-old will be on deck in some capacity!

Photo Courtesy: Peter H.Bick

His first was hard to top: beating Matt Biondi of the American juggernaut by 1-hundredth of a second to set an Olympic record and win gold in the men’s 100 meter butterfly at the 1988 Seoul Games. The result represented myriad historic firsts:

The first (still only) gold for Suriname in any Olympic sport;
The first Black man and only second Black athlete (Dutchwoman Enith Brigitha) to win an Olympic swimming medal;
The first South American swimming gold medalist since 1928 (Alberto Zorrilla of Argentina).

Around gold medals in the Pan Am Games, the Pan Pac Championships, the Goodwill Games and the World Championships plus three NCAA titles, he capped his career with Olympic bronze in 1992.

His status as a trailblazer set, he continued to push new boundaries. He was Suriname’s assistant coach at the 2004 Olympics and its head coach in 2008, 2012 and 2016. After a stint with the U.S. delegation at the World University Games in 2011, his profile grew at his alma mater, Florida. He was an assistant coach for the Gators from 1999-2006, then an associate head coach for 12 years until taking over the men’s team in 2018 and assuming control of the women’s squad in 2021.

In so many ways, Nesty’s time in Gainesville has prepared him for how to prepare for an Olympic job. He knows the feeling, with both Florida at NCAA meets and on U.S. staffs, of walking on deck and being that team that others envy—the team with the talent, with the depth, with the resources and mentality and assuredness to win.

He is the steward of that, with the mission of maximizing the performance that all those advantages can inspire.

“The support is the best,” he said. “You go to a meet like that, we have the best support, we have the best doctors, we have the best coaches. And when you go to a meet, you only see the swimmers come in. But everything prior to getting there, it’s second to none.”

FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS

Since his swimming career, Nesty had appreciated what it would mean to be part of the U.S. coaching staff. They were the team to aspire to, whichever nation you once competed for. “I’m an insider now,” he put it. “But as an outsider, you’re like, ‘Man, I’d like to be there someday.’”

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Nesty very much is. In addition to providing a substantial proportion of the Tokyo team from his training group in Gainesville—Caeleb Dressel, Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke, to name a few—he was one of the assistants to men’s head coach Dave Durden. For this cycle, Nesty (men’s team) and Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo (women’s team) will get the chance to be in charge, named last September and given a long runway to lay the groundwork.

The pair worked together as assistants in Tokyo and head coaches in Budapest, forming a working relationship that will track through Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in June, training camp in Cary, N.C., and a staging camp in Croatia before the July 26 opening ceremonies in Paris.

Having been on all sides of the coaching equation, Nesty emphasizes energy and enthusiasm, but also cohesiveness to keep everyone on the same page, emotionally and operationally.

“Everybody has input in what we do, and that’s how I like to operate,” he said. “At the end of the day, as the head coach, you have to call the shots. But having everybody’s input, the staff works better together, and I think in terms of the benefits of that, the kids get what they need to perform at a really high level.”

For Nesty, that means a certain level of separation from his international swimmers. While he’s been invested in the success of his multinational collection of athletes in Gainesville for years, he cedes that control once they get to Paris with their respective coaches, even for medal contenders such as Josh Liendo of Canada.

“At a World Championships level, at an Olympic level, we value high performance, first and foremost,” Nesty said. “If you have great performances—and you being part of that particular meet—there’s nothing better. By the same token, my job is with the U.S. I tell all the kids, ‘I wish you all the best,’ but once we get on-site at the Olympics, I can say hi to you, but I’m not going to coach you. My job is solely to prepare the U.S. team for being the best it can be at the Olympics.”

* * *

Nesty has a tendency to be self-effacing, a key component of his leadership approach. He understands that the final responsibility—to proactively set plans and get things done, or to retroactively field blame or accept credit—rests with him as the head coach. He embraces the pressure that brings.

But he also understands how he got here—from Suriname to the top step of the Olympic podium to calling the shots of one of the world’s pre-eminent powers. The altitude of the climb won’t alter Nesty’s preparation to keep moving forward.

“Everybody has a different way of preparing, but swimming is pretty simple,” he said. “Us coaches, we try to overanalyze things and make it hard. What we like to see is the group’s cohesiveness—in Cary and then in Croatia—with the hopes of getting really high-end performance.”

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Isabelle Fraser

13 days ago

I wish him all the success in the world. He has a great group of swimmers.