Greg Meehan, who was named the 2020 U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming Head Coach, enters his 13th season as the Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming at Stanford in 2024-25.
The three-time NCAA Swimming Coach of the Year led Stanford to back-to-back-to-back national championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Meehan has also continued the Cardinal's unmatched streak of never finishing outside the top 10 at the national championship.
In his 13 seasons on The Farm, Meehan has mentored six Pac-12 Swimmers of the Year, eight Pac-12 Newcomers of the Year, and has won six Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards. He has coached the Cardinal to 18 national championship relays and 28 individual national championships.
Under Meehan, Stanford has also won six Pac-12 Championships (2013, 2017-2020, 2022), and has not finished lower than third at the conference meet. Prior to Stanford's three straight national titles, the Cardinal finished as the national runner-up at the NCAA Championships in 2014 and 2016, and placed third in 2015 and 2022.
Meehan has led Stanford to a 82-7 dual meet record, including eight undefeated regular seasons.
An experienced coach at the Olympic level, Meehan mentored five Olympians and one Paralympian, serving as the 2020 U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming Head Coach as well as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil and the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. In that span, Meehan worked extensively with Olympians Maya DiRado, Torri Huske, Katie Ledecky, Lia Neal, Simone Manuel, and aralympian Brickelle Bro, combining to win 19 medals (ten Gold).
In 2022, Meehan led the Cardinal back to a successful season coming out of the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 season. Stanford won its fifth conference championship since 2017with 1,671.5 points – winning all five relays and seven individual titles. The Cardinal took third at the NCAA Championships that season, with Taylor Ruck (200 free) and Regan Smith (200 back) winning individual titles to add onto Stanford’s 800 free relay national title.
In 2019, Stanford won the Pac-12 title with the third-most points in conference history, and then boasted 18 All-Americans, the most in the nation, en route to becoming the first school since 2004 to win three straight national titles. Senior Ella Eastin, who was named the Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year, became the first woman to win four straight NCAA titles in the 400 individual medley. Sophomore Brooke Forde won the 500 free and anchored the winning 800 free relay.
A year prior, Stanford's national championship team led the nation with 16 academic All-Americans. In the pool, Stanford's 13 event victories at the NCAA Championships tied the all-time record as the Cardinal became just the third school to sweep all five relay events. Stanford set five American records en route to the third-largest margin of victory in NCAA meet history.
En route to Stanford's first national title in 19 years in 2017, the Cardinal had 13 different All-Americans combine for 47 All-America honors, six American records, seven individual national championships and three relay wins. Then-freshman Katie Ledecky won five NCAA events and became the second freshman ever to win the Honda Cup.
In 2014, Stanford won four of five relays while DiRado swept the IM races and Felicia Lee won the 100 fly. DiRado, who was the 2014 Pac-12 Swimmer of the Year, and Lee led Stanford to an undefeated dual meet season. Lee took home the prestigous Honda Award for swimming.
Greg Meehan: @pac12conference Coach of the Year! ???????? #GoStanford?? #pac12swim
A photo posted by @stanfordwswim on Apr 7, 2016 at 11:34am PDT
Regarded as one of the top assistants in the country during his tenure at Cal, Meehan took over the Cardinal program after leading the Golden Bears men's swimming and diving program to back-to-back national titles. Meehan, who spent four seasons with the Golden Bears, was promoted to associate head men's swimming and diving coach in 2011 and produced a pair of NCAA championships (2011, 2012) and a runner-up finish in 2010.
Prior to joining Cal's staff in 2008, Meehan was the head coach for both the men's and women's programs at the University of the Pacific. Meehan coached at Pacific from 2005-08, leading his women's team to a second-place finish at the Big West Conference Championships in 2006-07. On the men's side, Krzysztof Zoldak earned Big West Swimmer of the Year in 2005. In all, Meehan's Pacific teams broke 13 school records and three conference records, and seven of his student-athletes qualified for the NCAAs.
Before Pacific, Meehan was the assistant women's coach at UCLA from 2001-05, helping the Bruins to a 2003 Pac-10 title and seventh-place NCAA finish in 2004. Thirty-three All-Americans were produced and 32 school records broken during his time with the Bruins, where he specialized in working with the distance and individual medley corps in addition to recruiting duties.
Meehan was also assistant women's coach at Princeton from 1999-2001, helping the Tigers to a 17-0 dual meet record and the 2000 and 2001 Ivy League titles. Meehan was the first assistant and later interim head coach at William & Mary in 1998-99.
In the summer of 2003, Meehan served as assistant coach for the USA Swimming National Distance Camp at the USOC Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., mentoring the top young male and female distance swimmers from around the country.
At the international level, Meehan served as the head coach for Team USA at the 2017 World Championships, was an assistant at the 2015 World Championships and 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, and was as a manager for the United States at the 2007 World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
A graduate of Rider, Meehan earned a degree in mathematics and secondary education. While at Rider, he competed in the 200 backstroke and was a member of several Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion relays. Meehan also was a four-time All-Academic Award recipient, and was named to the school's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.
Meehan and his wife, Tess, reside in Palo Alto, Calif., with their two sons, Salvatore and James.
| Year | Position |
|---|---|
| 2018-21 | U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming Head Coach |
| 2012-present | Stanford's Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming |
| 2011-12 | Cal Men's Associate Head Coach |
| 2008-11 | Cal Men's Assistant |
| 2005-08 | Pacific Head Coach (Men & Women) |
| 2001-05 | UCLA Women's Assistant |
| 1999-2001 | Princeton Women's Assistant |
| 1998-99 | William & Mary Assistant/Interim Head Coach |