By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
U.S. Olympic swimmer and former Air Force head swim coach Casey Converse has died. He was 66-years old.
Converse swam collegiately at the University of Alabama where he set a pair of NCAA Records in the 1650 yard free and became the first man to break the 15-minute barrier in that event. At the 1977 NCAA Championships in Cleveland, he won in 14:57.30.
In a dual meet he also shattered the American Record in the 1000 yard free.
Converse swam at the 1976 Olympic Games when he was only 18-years old, finishing 9th in the 400-meter freestyle.
After college, he went on to a long coaching career, most famously at the United States Air Force Academy. He coached there from 1988-2017, leading the men’s and women’s teams from 1988-1996 and focusing on just the women’s team starting in 1997 as the school moved from D2 to D1 athletics.
In 2021, Converse was named as one of the 100 greatest collegiate coaches for the Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches’ Association (CSCAA) 100-year anniversary.
The winningest coach in Air Force history with a career record of 326-217 in 29 seasons leading the programs, including 5 women’s conference championships. He was the first non-military swim coach in the academy’s history and was inducted into the Air Force Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
In 2016, Converse wrote a book called Munich to Montreal: Women’s Olympic Swimming in a Tarnished Golden Era that told the story of the East German state-sponsored doping era at the 1976 Olympic Games, for which he had a front-row seat.
Converse had a long battle with cancer. Details about any services have not yet been released.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Olympian, Barrier-Breaking Swimmer Casey Converse Dies, 66