Olympic Medalist Tom Wilkens Named Head Coach at Fordham

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Photo Courtesy: Andy Ross

Olympic Medalist Tom Wilkens Named Head Coach at Fordham

Fordham University this week named American Olympic medalist Tom Wilkens its interim swimming and diving head coach.

The 47-year-old native of New Jersey won bronze in the men’s 200 individual medley at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He served as a team captain for the U.S. swim team at those Games.

“I would like to thank Athletic Director Ed Kull and the Fordham administration for giving me the opportunity to coach this outstanding group of student-athletes,” Wilkens said in a university statement. “I am very excited for this season and am looking forward to laying the groundwork for the future success of this program!”

Wilkens won four medals at World Championships, including gold in the 400 IM at the 2002 Short-Course Worlds. He was a five-time Pan Pacs medalist and won the 200 IM at the 1995 World University Games. He won 16 national titles and was a four-time winner of the Kipputh Award as the top scorer at U.S. Nationals. He captained the national team from 2000-03.

Wilkens attended Stanford, where he helped the Cardinal win the 1998 NCAA Championship and twice finish second. He won five individual NCAA titles, including the IM double in 1998 to go with the 200 breast title that year. The 16-time All-American and 10-time Pac-10 champion was inducted to Stanford’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.

Wilkens has coached since 2016 at the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County in New Jersey. He’s worked with age-groupers through national teamers, coaching YMCA national champions and Olympic Trials qualifiers. He is a USA Swimming certified coach.

Fordham had been without a coach since the abrupt resignation last month of longtime coach Steve Potsklan. He took the head coaching job at SUNY Maritime.

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