Ray Looze has built the IU program into a consistent threat in the Big Ten conference.
In 11 seasons as the coach of both the men’s and the women’s teams, Looze has coached several top-level swimmers and has gotten the Hoosiers into contention on the national stage.
Next is the world stage as he accompanies three Hoosiers to the Rio Olympics.
Freshman Lilly King, alumnus Cody Miller and sophomore Blake Pieroni will all be competing in Rio for Team USA.
After nearly qualifying himself for Team USA, Looze will now be a part of the team as an assistant coach.
“I’ve said this a lot this week, but it’s a dream come true,” Looze said. “It’s been something I’ve been pursuing since probably 1984 as first an athlete. It’s been a dream — one that I wasn’t sure would ever happen. To do it representing my country is meaningful beyond words.”
Looze credited his swimmers and the rest of his coaching staff for helping him achieve this honor.
The criterion for making an Olympic staff is complicated, but Looze fit the profile.
The first part of the criteria is if you have a medal contender, which King is in the 100- and the 200-meter breaststroke.
The other parts of the criteria look at how many swimmers you place on the team, your experience level, your ability to work with the other coaches and what you bring on an intangible level from previous Team USA coaching assignments.
“Last summer, I was the head women’s coach for the World University Games,” Looze said. “That’s almost a carbon copy of the Olympic game so that really helped me. They were giving me experience to get me prepared. It doesn’t matter unless you do something special at the Olympic Trials.”
Looze has also been the coach for the short course FINA World Swimming Championships.
After the Olympic Trials, Looze said he had to go through Olympic team processing where they had staff meetings where they divided up the team. Looze will work with the Hoosier swimmers, but also other swimmers on the team.
On July 12, Looze and his swimmers will report to San Antonio, Texas, for the first of two Team USA training camps. The second training camp will be a few weeks later in Atlanta where the team will be based at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, the site of the 1996 Olympic Games.
The team will spend 10 days in Atlanta prior to heading to Rio on Aug. 1.
Looze being on the staff will add a level of comfort for the IU swimmers.
“It really helps our athletes that our on the trip,” Looze said. “There are five weeks of time that they would have been without a coach that has worked with them. That helps them quite a bit.”
The emergence of IU swimming on the national and Olympic stage has also started to help grow the program further, Looze said.
“It’s already paid huge dividends,” Looze said. “I’ve got recruits wanting to talk to me that weren’t interested in doing that before. They kept mentioning IU on NBC during primetime. Our exposure has gone up exponentially to the whole country.”
Looze said the whirlwind has changed the program and has helped in a positive way, but there’s more work to be done.
“To really solidify it, we need to go to the games and win some medals,” Looze said. “To really take advantage of this opportunity, we have to strike the iron while it is hot and go to Rio and try to beat the best in the world.”
