Four-time NCAA champion Lexi Cuomo announces his retirement from competitive swimming
Lexi Cuomoan American record holder and four-time NCAA champion who swam four seasons at the University of Virginia announced her retirement from NCAA swimming via an Instagram post on Saturday.
“I’m leaving this sport even more smiling than when I started,” Cuomo wrote. “Thank you to my parents, coaches, teammates, friends, sisters. I couldn’t have swim without you. Looking for a new passion to pursue for the next 15 years!”
A #16 recruit by SwimSwam in the high school class of 2019, Cuomo was part of the first batch of swimmers to be Virginia Head Coach Todd DeSorbo recruited, which included such Kate Douglas, Maddie DonohoeAnd Ella Nelson. This group provided the foundation upon which Virginia built to win three straight national titles, and they also created a domino effect as other top later-grade recruits came to Charlottesville.
For Cuomo in particular, her legacy in Virginia will be largely based on her endless season contributions. During her sophomore year (the 2020-21 season), she began swimming the flying leg of Virginia’s 200 medley relay and helped her team break the NCAA, US Open and American records four times, two in the process Win NCAA title. She also swam in Virginia’s 200-free relay, which broke the NCAA record twice and won two NCAA titles with her. Additionally, Cuomo has swum in a few 400 free relays, most recently at the 2023 ACCs, where she helped Virginia break another NCAA record that was later set at the NCAAs without her.
Cuomo’s relay splits have improved tremendously over her years at UVA. From her first ACCs as a freshman through her senior year, she has lost 0.41 seconds on her 50 free split, 0.45 seconds on her 50 fly split and 0.84 seconds on her 100 free split, most of these drops were in their senior year. At the 2023 NCAAs, her fly split in the 200-meter relay was the fastest overall in the field.
| Academic year (2019-20) | Second year (2020-21) | Junior year (2021-22) | Graduation Year (2022-23) | |
| 50 free (200 free relay) | 21.55 | 21.63 | 21.41 | 21.14 |
| 50 flies (200 relay relay) | N / A | 22:40 (22:55 at ACCs, their first relay swim) | 22.68 | 22.10 |
| 100 free (400 free relay) | 47.84 | 48.14 | N / A | 47.00 |
Individually, Cuomo has also found great success during her time in Virginia. Her pre-college best times were 22.94 in the 50 Free, 49.71 in the 100 Free, and 52.01 in the 100 Fly, and she finished her career with personal bests of 21.61, 47.71, and 50, respectively. 65, in which the former two came from her senior season. She has also scored in every single NCAA championship she has competed in (2021, 2022, 2023) and has a career high of 8th in 100-flying (51.80) in 2021 and 8th in 50- Free (21.71) achieved in 2023. Her highest-ranked conference performance was the 2021 ACC Championships, where she finished second in the 50 Free (21.99), fourth in the 100 Free (48.52), and second in the 100 Fly (50.65).
At the 2023 NCAA Championships, Cuomo placed 8th in the 50 free (21.71), 16th in the 100 fly (48.31), and 14th in the 1oo fly (51.28), scoring 15 singles points to help her team win their third consecutive NCAA title. In addition, she won two NCAA titles as part of Virginia’s 200 free and medley relays.
Cuomo was named team captain for Virginia for the 2022-23 season. Outside of the pool, she is studying chemical engineering and graduated Fall 2022 with a GPA of 4.0.
