Tom Rushton ’01 has made a career out of traveling the world coaching superstar swimmers, and now he’s taking his work to the Summer Games in Paris.
When the Olympics kick off July 26, Rushton will be coaching six competitors from all corners of the globe — two swimmers from Hong Kong, one from Estonia and three from Israel, where he serves as head coach.
The son of two British Olympic swimmers — both of whom became coaches — had a distinguished collegiate career competing at Kenyon. The only swimmer in NCAA Division III history to claim the 500-yard freestyle national title four consecutive years, he won six career NCAA individual event titles and five career NCAA relay championships. He entered the in 2019.
Now Rushton coaches individual elite swimmers, including some who have found Olympic glory »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·past under his tutelage. At the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, swimmers he worked with brought home a total of six gold medals, seven silver and four bronze.
“In the last four or five years, I’ve coached athletes from, I think, 36 different countries,” he told the Kenyon »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ· Magazine for its .
He’s not the only person with connections to Kenyon to participate »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·Olympics over the years.
Swimmer competed as part of the Latvian national team »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·. He swam »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·100-meter butterfly both times and added the 200-meter individual medley in 2008.
Inducted into the Kenyon Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023, Duda piled up nine career NCAA individual event titles — including winning the 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley three times each — and 15 career NCAA relay titles. His total of 24 NCAA titles is the best in program history.
Joining him on the Latvian team was swimmer , who competed in . She swam the 50-meter freestyle in Atlanta in 1996 and again in Sydney four years later, when she added the 100-meter freestyle. At the Summer Games in Athens in 2004, she swam the 100-meter freestyle.
entered the Kenyon Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023 after winning 15 career NCAA titles, with four coming in individual events (the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley). She also won Kenyon’s Falkenstine Award, given to outstanding scholar-athletes who best display the characteristics of both leadership and integrity.
Swimmer Michelle Engelsman, who attended Kenyon from 1997 to 1999, competed »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·as part of the Australian national team, finishing sixth »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·50-meter freestyle. She won two career NCAA individual event titles and four career NCAA relay titles as a Kenyon student.
A slew of other swimmers have come close to participating »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·Summer Games, competing »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·U.S. Olympic Trials over the years. These include , who claimed 19th place this year »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·100-meter breaststroke race at the trials in Indianapolis. Over the course of her first three seasons at Kenyon, she has won six NCAA event titles, including back-to-back titles »Æ¹Ï¾«Æ·100-yard breaststroke.
And Rushton isn’t the only Kenyon alumnus to coach at the Olympics. In fact, he’s joined in that distinction by a former roommate in Gambier, Josh White ‘01, who spent 15 years at the University of Michigan as assistant and associate swim coach. At the London 2012 Summer Games, White served as the head swimming coach for Barbados, whose athlete Bradley Ally competed in three events. While at Kenyon, White won the Coach’s Award in 1999 and was part of two career NCAA relay titles.