US Olympic silver medalist Rhyan White says she’s moving to train with the Wolfpack Elite pro training group based out of NC State. White graduated from Alabama last year with a degree in Human Environmental Studies.
White’s departure coincides with that of Ozzie Quevedo, who left to become the head women’s coach at SMU in Dallas next season. Quevedo has been White’s primary coach at Alabama.
White swam the maximum 5 seasons at Alabama (including the COVID year), qualifying for the NCAA Championships in each of those years. She earned a total of 19 CSCAA All-America awards (First Team and Honorable Mention combined), and won 8 individual SEC Championships. Her best years in college were her sophomore and junior years. In the 2019-2020 season, she swam most of her best times, before the NCAA Championship meet was canceled by COVID-19. In the 2020-2021 season, she swept the SEC titles in the 100 back, 200 back, and 100 fly.
In 2021, she earned NCAA runner-up finishes in the 100 back, 200 back, and placed 5th in the 100 fly as well. That led in to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where she earned a spot on Team USA in the 100 and 200-meter backstrokes.
In Tokyo, she placed 4th in both events, and she earned a silver medal by swimming the backstroke leg of the prelims 400 medley relay that went on to finish 2nd in finals.
In her last NCAA Championship meet, she finished 8th in the 100 back (51.26) and 11th in the 200 back (1:51.93) at the NCAA Championships.
She was one of the few Crimson Tide swimmers who swam under head coaches Dennis Pursley, Coley Stackels, and Margo Geer.
At the 2021 World Short Course Championships, she won the 200 meter backstroke individually. In long course at 2022 Worlds, she won a gold medal as a medley relay prelims leg again as well as individual bronze in the 200 back.
At NC State, among others, she will train with fellow US National Team backstroker Katharine Berkoff, who won silver in the 50 backstroke at Worlds last year. NC State is also the training ground for Hunter Tapp, who is on the National Team in the 200 back.
The Wolfpack have a long history of producing top-class backstrokers. Justin Ress, on the National Team in the 100 back, is now training in the pro group at Mission Viejo, but was previously at NC State as both an undergrad and a pro.
Rhyan White‘s Career Best Times:
| SCY | SCM | LCM | |
| 50 back | 23.35 | 26.33 | 27.45 |
| 100 back | 50.02 | 55.87 | 58.43 |
| 200 back | 1:48.06 | 2:01.58 | 2:05.13 |
White is the 7th-best performer of all-time in the 200 backstroke. Two of the swimmers ahead of her are active Americans: Regan Smith (2:03.35) and Phoebe Bacon (2:05.08), which leaves a battle for spots on the US Olympic Team for the Paris 2024 Games.
White made the announcement via Instagram, where she thanks Alabama for her time with the program.
That included a poignant piece of advice from her mom:
“When I moved to college, my mom said to me that I’d adopt traits of the 5 people I spend most of my time with, so I should choose them carefully. I learned that those people aren’t going to be the same from the first day to the last. Lucky for me, I had some people with me no matter what and others that were in my life for a shorter amount of time. Through it all I learned so much about life while learning about myself.”
White, 23, is a native of Herriman, Utah. She was a Utah State Champion at Cottonwood High School while training with Wasatch Front Fish Market.
