Growing up, Gophers graduate swimmer Joey Tepper followed in both his older brother’s footsteps and chose a life in swimming. This choice would lead him to swim for the 2025-26 USA national team.
Tepper spent most of his collegiate swimming career at the University of Tennessee, where he saw a lot of success in freestyle. In his senior season, Tepper saw action in both the 500 and 1650 freestyle during the NCAA championship.
Tepper also broke the school record for long course meters during the 400 freestyle in his senior season. LCM refers to a 50-meter pool, which is the standard length for Olympic and major international competitions.
Tepper said he learned so much while swimming at Tennessee.
“How to be a team player, how to practice really well, and a lot of mental strategies on how to keep a calm mind during the race, which is super important for what I do,” Tepper said.
He brought those lessons to the University of Minnesota for his graduate year of swimming.
Tepper had a few options, but eventually decided to swim for the Gophers in part because of the success of freestyle swimmer Bar Soloveychik.
“I wanted to come to Minneapolis for personal reasons, and I knew the team was really good, particularly Bar,” Tepper said. “If Bar is there, and if Bar is doing really, really well, then I know that swimming there will probably be a good experience.”
Tepper saw a lot of success in his 2024-25 graduate year with the Gophers. He was awarded the 2025 College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association Spring Scholar All-American first team and had many first-place finishes at the meets.
Additionally, Tepper made it into the Gophers record book with the second all-time finish in the 1000 freestyle and third all-time for both the 500 and 1650 freestyle.
Tepper’s performance during the 2024-25 season is one of the many reasons he was chosen for the 2025-26 USA national team. The roster for the national team is made up of 121 swimmers, all of whom were chosen based on their results from the 2024-25 swim season.
Tepper said that growing up, one of his biggest goals was to make it to the national team.
“When I was very young, something that seemed really cool to me would have been making that national team,” Tepper said.
Swimming in Minnesota helped Tepper reach that goal. Tepper said that Minnesota had a different training ideology that just really clicked with him.
“I just had a lot of fun, I really enjoyed swimming in this last year,” Tepper said.
Tepper is one of 67 men who were chosen for the national team, and Tepper said it is very cool to travel for Team USA.
“It’s just a chance to wear that drippy Team USA hat,” Tepper said. “It’s pretty cool, not a lot of people get to do that. I am very grateful for it.”
