When Anthony Nesty, the head coach of the University of Florida’s men’s swimming and diving team, brings the team to the Olympics in Paris next year, he will be the first Black head coach of the American men’s swimming team.
Along with Nesty’s nomination, USA Swimming announced Todd DeSorbo as the head coach of the women’s swimming squad for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
In a statement released by USA Swimming, Nesty said, “I’m excited to be the men’s head Olympic coach in Paris. Todd and I look forward to coaching these athletes to the best of their abilities in Paris next summer.”
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the appointee created history by becoming the first black male swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal while representing his own nation, Suriname. In an interview with The Associated Press prior of this year’s national championships, Nesty stressed the value of having a well-known black coach in a sport that is still striving to become more diverse.
“You know you’re a role model,” he said. “You have to take that very seriously. Maybe it’s why I work so hard at what I do. I try to be the best Anthony Nesty I can be.”
The 55-year-old coach told Good Morning America that his father, Ronald Nesty, taught him and his brothers to swim when they were growing up in Suriname, a traditionally Caribbean country on South America’s north coast.
He attributed his current success to his father, Ronald Nesty, who taught him discipline, hard effort, and consistency based on his belief that sports like swimming brought out the best in athletes because how well they performed was totally up to the individual.
Nesty never forgot what his father told him while he was studying as a student-athlete in Florida.
His hard work earned him the post of head coach at the University of Florida, as well as an assistant coaching position for Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where he coached world-class swimmers like Katie Ledecky, Bobby Finke, and Caeleb Dressel.
He also became the first black coach to lead a US team to the World Championships in 2022.