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Anthony Nesty: Continuing To Make An Impact… As A Coach
By David Rieder
Anthony Nesty’s accomplishments as a swimmer in the late 1980s and ’90s made him a national icon. But decades after that, he is still making a huge impact on the sport from a different vantage point—as a coach.
Even as a teenager, Anthony Nesty was already the finest swimmer Suriname had ever produced. He was winning races around the Caribbean and in South Africa, and he had even qualified for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where he placed 21st in the 100 butterfly.
But Nesty knew that sports careers in Suriname were typically finished right around the time an athlete finished high school, so Nesty’s father decided that they should look to the United States to help Anthony take his career to the next level.
That led Nesty to the Bolles School, where he swam for Coach Gregg Troy. Thinking back on his first experience in the U.S., Nesty remembered a moment during his senior year championship meet when he swam the 50 free and missed out on a victory. Nesty believed he should have won the race, and after he finished, he realized he needed to walk off by himself for a moment to collect himself. When he raced again in the 100 fly, he broke the national record.
“The resilience of an athlete screwing up one of his events and coming back and putting that event aside and kicking that second event into another gear, I think that was one of the biggest breakthroughs of my swimming,” Nesty said.
A MIRACLE FINISH IN SEOUL
Nesty’s rise culminated at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, by which time he had enrolled at the University of Florida. He was already a gold medalist at the Pan American Games, an established swimmer at age 20. He qualified for the 100 fly Olympic final, and after a slow start, he put himself in position to win a medal with 25 meters to go. Coming down the stretch, Nesty was locked in a battle with Australia’s Jon Sieben and Great Britain’s Andy Jameson for silver as American Matt Biondi pulled away. Even with five meters to go, Biondi still had a half-body length lead.
But then, in a miracle finish, Nesty got in ahead of the famed American. Biondi glided to the wall and picked his head up while Nesty took an extra stroke to help him finish on the right cycle. He swam a time of 53.00, an Olympic record. He was a gold medalist.
“I always felt I was capable of doing special things. I’m not saying that to be cocky,” Nesty said. “The Olympics is the pinnacle of our sport. Any athlete, that’s what they want to do. Obviously, it’s tough to get there. Getting there is one thing, and performing when you get there is another.”
Nesty came through, and he won the first Olympic medal in any sport for Suriname. In fact, he is still the only athlete from Suriname to stand on an Olympic podium. He did so twice, as he returned to the Games four years later in Barcelona and picked up a bronze in the 100 fly, less than a tenth behind gold medalist Pablo Morales.
COACH NESTY
When Nesty graduated college, he quickly ended up back on the pool deck as a coach.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Nesty said of his career choice. “I wanted to stay in the sport as best as I could, just to give back and help an athlete experience the same things that I went through. I just wanted to help kids get better.”
Nesty returned to Bolles to coach for a few years, and then he ended up as an assistant at Florida in the summer of 1998. One year later, Troy was hired as the head coach of the combined women’s and men’s programs, and he retained his former swimmer on the Gators’ staff. During that time as Troy’s assistant and then as associate head coach, Nesty helped coach the many legendary swimmers who passed through the Florida program, including Ryan Lochte, Gemma Spofforth, Elizabeth Beisel, Caeleb Dressel and more.
Along the way, he refined his coaching philosophy and tactics. He followed Troy’s leadership, but also considered how he would manage a program should he ever have the opportunity. “Throughout the years, I’ve had a lot of notebooks, things to do and not to do,” Nesty said.
After the 2018 season, Troy announced his retirement from college coaching, and Nesty interviewed to replace him. “I went into the interview like I was swimming the 100 fly at the Olympics. I was prepared. I knew this was the job I wanted.”
[PHOTO BY KAREEM ELGAZZAR / USA TODAY SPORTS]
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FEATURES
012 2021 OPEN WATER SWIMMERS OF THE YEAR
by Dan D’Addona and David Rieder
Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock both captured Olympic gold in Tokyo and repeated as the world’s elite open water swimmers in both 2019 and 2021.
014 2021 OPEN WATER HIGHLIGHTS
by Dan D’Addona
Although the Tokyo Olympic Games commanded the spotlight in 2021, there were many other open water highlights throughout the year.
018 ISHOF FEATURE: AQUATOTS MURDER CASE—THE KATHY TONGAY STORY (Part 2)
by Bruce Wigo
This is the second of a three-part story about “The Aquatots Murder Case” that first appeared in the October issue of Swimming World. It is about Kathy Tongay, a little girl whose father, Russell, had been training her almost from birth to be an expert diver and swimmer. When she died at the age of 5, her father was arrested for murdering his daughter.
022 PERHAPS OVERLOOKED…BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
by John Lohn
As we creep closer to signing off on this Olympic year, Swimming World offers a look at six athletes—all members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame—who hold a special place in history, even if they are not always at the forefront of the mind.
025 CONTINUING TO MAKE AN IMPACT
by David Rieder
Anthony Nesty’s accomplishments as a swimmer in the late 1980s and ’90s made him a national icon. But decades after that, he is still making a huge impact on the sport from a different vantage point—as a coach.
028 MENTAL PREP: BEFORE THE BEEP WITH DAVID CURTISS
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
030 NUTRITION: THE IMPORTANCE OF IRON—LOW MEANS SLOW!
by Dawn Weatherwax
Iron is a mineral that directly impacts performance.
COACHING
016 COACHING IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT (Part 1)
by Michael J. Stott
In the first of two articles, Swimming World explores how coaches and administrators coped with the recent unpleasantness of COVID-19.
036 SPECIAL SETS: AUDREY DERIVAUX—KILLER QUEEN
by Michael J. Stott
Young Audrey Derivaux of Jersey Wahoos has turned in comparable times to the 11-12 age group superstars who have excelled before her.
040 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: DISTRUST IN SWIMMING SCIENCE IS NOT A MYSTERY
by Rod Havriluk
The fact that general scientific information is routinely ignored provides some perspective about the difficulty in applying science to the sport of swimming. While a single technique element cannot guarantee success, American Lydia Jacoby’s Olympic victory suggests that using science can provide a competitive advantage.
042 SPECIAL SETS: DANIEL DIEHL—DEFINITELY DRIVEN
by Michael J. Stott
Daniel Diehl, 15, of the Cumberland YMCA Sea Otters is Maryland’s—and the nation’s—top-ranked male swimmer in the Class of 2024. In recent months, he has either broken or knocked on the door of several national age group records. In October, as the youngest male on the U.S. National Junior Team, he notched seven top 10 individual finishes at the FINA World Cup meets in Germany and Hungary.
044 Q&A WITH SWIM IRELAND’S NATIONAL PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR JON RUDD
by Michael J. Stott
045 HOW THEY TRAIN IRISH OLYMPIAN DARRAGH GREENE
by Michael J. Stott
TRAINING
039 DRYSIDE TRAINING: BACK TO BASICS (Part 2)
by J.R. Rosania
JUNIOR SWIMMER
047 | UP & COMERS: AVA BUHRMAN
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
COLUMNS & SPECIAL SECTIONS
007 THE OFFICIAL WORD
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT
009 DID YOU KNOW: ABOUT “DO YOU KNOW THAT….”?
032 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
048 GUTTERTALK
049 PARTING SHOT
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