Salo chosen as FINA women’s head coach


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USC head swimming and diving coach Dave Salo has been named USA’s national women’s head coach for the 2015 FINA World Championships. The meet is scheduled for July 24- Aug. 9 in Kazan, Russia.

Salo is entering his ninth season as head coach of USC’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs. He will serve alongside Cal’s head coach Dave Durden, who will coach the USA’s men’s national team.

This is the second time that Salo will direct the women’s national team at Worlds, as he coached the team in 2013 in Barcelona. Salo’s 2013 team included Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky. His team won a tournament-best nine gold medals.

Salo has coached in three Olympic games and served as an assistant coach to the women’s national team in the 2012 Olympics, helping his team win eight gold medals. In 2010 he was inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Salo earned his Ph.D. from USC after earning his undergraduate and master’s degree from Long Beach State. Salo returned to USC as an assistant coach under Peter Daland. In 1990, Salo took a head coaching job with the Irvine Novaquatics.

While head coach of the Novaquatics, Salo coached his team to the Junior National Team Championships and the United States Swimming National Championships. Salo returned to USC, this time as head coach, in 2006.

In his time at USC, Salo has regularly coached his team to title contention, routinely securing a place in the top 10. The 2014 NCAA Championships saw the women’s team finish fifth and the men’s team finish eighth. It was the fifth consecutive top-seven finish for USC’s women’s team. 

The men’s team boasts an undefeated 4-0 record to start this season while the women are 3-1. All wins are in conference.