#Arizona State swimmers won’t compete due to coronavirus

Arizona State swimmers have chosen to redshirt rather than compete during the 2020-21 school year, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“With all the uncertainty going on around everything, it just makes sense to me that we could give everybody a year to rebuild, get into a training mode, focus on preparing for next summer’s (Olympic) trials and carry that into the next season,” coach Bob Bowman told reporters.

Neither the men’s or women’s teams will hit the pool in a decision made by the school, instead maintaining their eligibility despite not getting an extra year from the NCAA with the 2020 Swimming Championships canceled. Swimming is a two-semester sport spanning from October to March.

Swimmers can return to campus and train with Bowman and his staff, or delay returning and train at home while taking online classes. The teams are planning to resume competing next season.

Bowman, who coached gold-medalist Michael Phelps throughout his career, has 20 Sun Devils swimmers who have already qualified for U.S. Olympic trials. He guided the Sun Devils to finish 22nd in the 2018 men’s swimming championship and 23rd in women’s.

“This unique approach will provide additional opportunities for these athletes to pursue educational endeavors,” ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson said in a statement. “Our goal is to provide an elite student-athlete experience and this methodology will allow these athletes an additional year to train and achieve championship performance but also realize new academic goals.”