July 5, 2013

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina swimming and diving head coach McGee Moody and senior Michael Flach will represent Team USA during the next 12 days at the 2013 World University Games in Kazan Russia.

The Games will be held July 6-17, with the swimming events beginning on July 10 at the Akcharlak Swimming Pool and the Aquatics Palace. Moody will serve as an assistant coach for the men’s swimming team, while Flach will swim the 200-meter butterfly. The event will be the first international experience for both Moody and Flach.

“It’s an opportunity that every coach dreams about, to be able to represent your country and take a group of young men and women over to an international competition and be able to lead them, hopefully, to things they’ve never done before and to make the country proud,” Moody said.

Moody was named an assistant coach for the men’s swimming team in June. Mike Bottom (Michigan) will serve as the team’s head coach, while Kelly Kremer (Minnesota) and Rick DeMont (Arizona) join Moody to make up the assistant coaching staff.

A native of Annandale, Va., Flach was one of 25 swimmers to secure a spot on the men’s squad and will compete in the 200 butterfly on Friday, July 12. The two-time All-American made the roster by finishing second in the 200 butterfly at the U.S. Open Championships last August. Flach fell just short of making the U.S. Olympic Team last summer as he finished eighth in the 200 butterfly at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

“It’s good to see him get the chance to go (to Kazan) with this group,” Moody said. “But it’s not his top goal. He’s got a lot bigger things he wants to accomplish. Our job is to go to Russia and put him on the medal stand. That’s a big goal, but that’s what we’ve got. He knows he is capable of doing that. When he’s on, he can swim with anybody in the world.”

Taking place every two years, the World University Games is an international multi-sport event organized for university athletes by the International Sports Federation (FISU). ESPN3 will carry 115 hours of live coverage of the Games, beginning on Saturday.