Melanie Ann Margalis-Fink (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Margalis; born December 30, 1991) is an American competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who specializes in the

freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Laboritories Media * '' FreeStyle'', ...

breaststroke Breaststroke is a human swimming, swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and ...

and

individual medley Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes ( freestyle (usually front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as ...

events. Margalis represented the Cali Condors which was part of the

International Swimming League The International Swimming League (ISL) was an annual professional swimming league, established in 2019. It features a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. In 2019, the regular season started in October and the Final Match ...

. She won a gold medal at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Career

High school career

Margalis graduated from Countryside High School, where she was also a club swimmer for

Saint Petersburg Aquatics Saint Petersburg Aquatics (SPA) is a year-round competitive swim team located at Northshore Aquatic Complex in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The club has been awarded the Bronze Medal status by USA Swimming, designating St. Petersburg Aquatics as on ...

. There, she was coached by Fred Lewis. In high school swimming, she was a three-time state champion and held the state record in the 200-yard IM. For four years in a row, Margalis was named her teams’ MVP. Proving her versatility, she also swam the 500-yard free in 2009 in which she also won a state championship. After her performances that season, she was named the 2009-2010

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 959,107, making it the seventh-most populous county in the state. It is also the most d ...

Female Athlete of the Year. That same year, she was named to the National Youth Championship Team.

College career

Margalis helped the

Georgia Bulldogs swimming and diving The Georgia Bulldogs swimming and diving team represents the University of Georgia (UGA) in NCAA men's and women's swimming and diving. Also known as the "Swim Dawgs," the teams compete at Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Georgia, USA. The wo ...

women's team at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

win the NCAA Division I women's team title in 2013 and again in 2014.

2013

Margalis won gold in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay as a member of the preliminary team and bronze in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2013 World University Games in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

2014

At the 2014 National Championships, Margalis won the 200-meter IM and finished third in both the 400-meter IM and 200-meter breaststroke to earn a roster spot on the Pan Pac team — she finished 12th in the 400-meter IM and ninth in the 200-meter IM. Later that year she also competed at the

2014 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) were held in Doha, Qatar on 3–7 December 2014. The Hamad Aquatic Centre in the Aspire Zone hosted the event. Host selection On 14 December 2010, FINA announced that Catania, Italy would host t ...

, swimming the IM events. She won a bronze in the 200-meter IM and finished sixth in the 100-meter IM.

2015

At the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia hosted this event for the first time. The number of participating national teams (190), ...

, Russia Margalis swam a 2:10.41 to finish 7th.

2016

At the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Margalis won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

with the U.S. women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay team.

2017

At the

2017 World Aquatics Championships The 17th FINA World Championships () were held in Budapest, Hungary from 14 to 30 July 2017.

Margalis had a strong swim in the 200-meter IM, but could not hold off the final 50 surge of US teammate Madisyn Cox, and finished fourth. In 4x200-meter freestyle relay, Leah Smith led off for the Americans in a personal best 1:55.97.

Mallory Comerford Mallory Burckle (née Comerford; born September 6, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer specializing in freestyle events. Comerford was the winner of five gold medals at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. She won USA Swimming's Golden ...

(1:56.92) and Margalis (1:56.48) took over the middle legs of the relay as they battled down the stretch with China and Russia. It was a very tight race with China going into the final leg, but

Katie Ledecky Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky ( ; born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer. She is the List of individual gold medalists in swimming at the Olympics and World Aquatics Championships (women)#Title leaders, most deco ...

took off with a 1:54.02 split to help the Americans strike gold again. At the 2017 Winter Nationals Championships Margalis had a busy weekend as she competed in five individual events and managed to grab three individual titles. She broke the Championship Record in the 200-yard IM with the time of 1:52.63 and finished first in 400-yard IM and 100-yard breaststroke.

2018

At the

2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships The 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, a long course (50 m) event, was held in Tokyo, Japan, from 9 to 14 August 2018. Qualifying criteria Unlike the World Championships and Olympic Games, nations can enter as many people as they li ...

Margalis secured a silver medal in the 400-meter IM with a time of 4:35.60. At the

2018 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) were held from 11 to 16 December 2018 in Hangzhou, China. These championships featured swimming events in a 25-meter ( short-course) pool. Medal table Results Men's events Women's events ...

Margalis earned the silver medal in the 400-meter IM, turning in a career-best time of 4:25.84 in the event finals. She was also runner-up in the 200-meter IM (personal best 2:04.62) and finished fourth in the 100-meter IM, clocking a 58.32, just .21 of a second off the podium. Margalis was a part of two medal winning relay teams, earning gold in the 4×100-meter medley relay and silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.

2019

2019 World Championships

At the

2019 World Aquatics Championships The 2019 World Aquatics Championships were the 18th FINA World Aquatics Championships, held in Gwangju, South Korea from 12 to 28 July 2019. The city had previously hosted the 2015 Summer Universiade aquatics events in the same venues.

Margalis placed 4th in the final once again in a time of 2:08.91. On Day 5, Margalis raced in the 4×200-meter free relay, where she split 1:55.81 to help USA to a new American record and silver medal behind Australia.

International Swimming League

In 2019 she was a member of the inaugural

representing the Cali Condors, who finished third place in the final match in Las Vegas, Nevada in December. During the season Margalis went undefeated in the 400-meter IM breaking the American record several times along the way.

Coaching career

In 2022, she was hired as assistant coach at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. She was hired as assistant coach at SMU in 2023.

Personal life

She is married to swimmer

Nic Fink Nicolas Fink (born July 3, 1993) is an American competitive swimmer. He is a five-time world champion in breaststroke events and a 2024 Olympic Silver Medalist in the 100 meter breaststroke. He is a world record holder in the short course 4× ...

, who won a three medals at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. Their son was born in 2024.Olympic Swimmer Nic Fink Welcomes First Baby with Wife Melanie: 'Our Little Turkey Butt'
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References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Margalis, Melanie 1991 births Living people American female freestyle swimmers American female medley swimmers Georgia Bulldogs women's swimmers Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Sportspeople from Clearwater, Florida Summer World University Games medalists in swimming FISU World University Games gold medalists for the United States FISU World University Games bronze medalists for the United States Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) 21st-century American sportswomen Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets swimming coaches SMU Mustangs swimming coaches

Career

High school career

College career

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2019 World Championships

International Swimming League

Coaching career

Personal life

See also

References

External links