Tulane Adds Women's Swimming for 2003-2004

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Tulane University will add women's swimming and diving to its intercollegiate athletics program with the team beginning competition in the 2003-2004 season, Green Wave Director of Athletics Rick Dickson announced Wednesday. The addition of the sport is another step toward the university's goal of achieving gender equity in its athletics program.

"I'm happy to announce the addition of swimming and diving to our line-up of sport programs," Dickson said. "After an extensive research process during which we evaluated many potential sports and looked at a wide range of factors involved in sponsoring those teams, it just made sense to add swimming and diving now."

Tulane will offer the NCAA maximum of 14 scholarships for women's swimming and diving, which can be divided among student-athletes. The average team consists of approximately 25 women. The Green Wave will compete for the Conference USA Championship in women's swimming and diving; Tulane is the seventh C-USA institution to sponsor the sport.

"We want to thank all the people involved in this process to date, many of whom will continue to be involved as we move ahead with the nuts and bolts of building a team," said Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Megan Drucker, who leads the equity and certification efforts for the Tulane Athletics Department. "Of course this is just one step of our gender equity plan, but it is a significant move. We're looking forward to our first competition in the fall of 2003."

With the addition of women's swimming and diving, Tulane will field 15 teams, nine women's and six men's, in 2003-04, putting the Wave well on its way to achieving proportional numbers among its men's and women's participants. The Green Wave last introduced a new sport in 1996 when women's soccer began play. Tulane previously fielded a women's swimming and diving program from 1977 to 1989-90, although it was not fully-funded.

The search for a head coach will begin immediately with the first class of Wave recruits to be signed beginning this November.