Jennifer Brinegar, a prominent name in the swimming world for the last five decades, took over the Franklin College swimming and diving program in the fall of 2026 after several years of coaching club swimmers in central Indiana.
Brinegar has been a household name in the sport since 1976, when she made the U.S. Olympic team as a 15-year-old and made the final in the women's 200-meter freestyle while also swimming in a preliminary heat for the gold-medal winning 400 freestyle relay. She went on to win a pair of national championships in 1977, a gold medal in the 400 free relay at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships and a silver in the 800 free at the 1979 Pan American Games.
She went on to swim at Indiana University, winning national championships in the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle and taking home seven Big Ten titles before graduating in 1984. The Hoosiers inducted Brinegar into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
Brinegar later received a law degree from Vanderbilt and practiced law in St. Louis and Rochester, Minnesota. She has been a member of the state bars in Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.
In 1994, Brinegar returned to Indiana to work in the athletic department at her alma mater. She earned a master's degree in sports management in 1996 and was promoted to assistant athletic director in 1999, serving in that role until 2008 and then as senior assistant athletic director until 2021.
Her swim coaching career began in 2009, when she began working as a volunteer assistant for Donner Swim Club in Columbus, Indiana. Among her students there were her own sons — Kevin, who was a member of a Division III national championship team at Denison in 2016; and Michael, who went on to win a state championship in the 500-yard freestyle as a freshman at Columbus North and then make the 2021 U.S. Olympic team as a distance freestyler.
Most notably, Brinegar founded Club Olympia Swim Team in 2016, where she has trained some of the top age-group swimmers in the state of Indiana. She headed up that club for nine years before rejoining Donner in the summer of 2025.
"I am honored to be named the head men's and women's swimming and diving coach at Franklin College," Brinegar said upon her arrival. "(The team is) a well-rounded group of quality student-athletes who are ready to start training for the upcoming season. I'm hopeful we can get to where we have enough swimmers and divers qualify for the NCAA D3 Championships in both individual events and relays. I want to see Franklin College on the scoreboard at the NCAAs!"
Brinegar lives in Columbus, Indiana with her husband.
