Elliot Ptasnik joined the Queens men’s and women’s swimming coaching staffs ahead of the 2023-24 season. Ptasnik brings over 15 years of coaching to Charlotte with experience ranging from age group, college, and professional swimmers. Most recently, he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Stanford University, primarily working with the Cardinal women’s team and 2020 U.S. Women’s Olympic Swimming Head Coach Greg Meehan.
While completing a master’s degree from 2021 to 2023, Ptasnik was the founder and head coach of Aloha Aquatica, a professional training group based out of Kapolei, Hawaii. He has worked with athletes such as World Champion Ben Proud, World Record holder Andrii Govorov, Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin, Olympians Michael Andrew, Shane Ryan, Marius Kusch and Meiron Cheruti and many other professional swimmers. Ptasnik has coached at many major competitions such as US Olympic Trials, US Nationals, NCAA Championships, World Championships and European Championships.
From 2016 to 2021, Ptasnik served as an assistant coach and head coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During his tenure at Hawaii, he helped guide the UH Wahine (women’s team) to MPSF Conference Championships in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the UH Warriors (men’s team) to MPSF Conference Championships in 2019 and 2020. Ptasnik was awarded MPSF Women’s Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2021 and MPSF Men’s Coach of the Year in 2020.
Prior to Hawaii, Ptasnik spent nine years as Director of Imagine Swimming in New York City, expanding the swim school to over 4,000 swimmers and serving as head coach of the Manhattan Makos swim team which produced many successful swimming careers, including Division I and Division III national champions.
Ptasnik swam at the University of Iowa, earning a degree in finance in 2005. He also has an MBA from the University of Hawaii. He is accompanied by his wife Shana, an electrophysiologist at Novant Presbyterian Hospital, and their dog Archie.
Quotes
“Elliot made an immediate and lasting impact on our program this summer. He’s an incredibly thoughtful and curious coach who brought a positive and an infectious energy to the pool deck each and every day. Elliot will continue to make a big impact at Queens and I’m excited for him to take his next journey in his career.”
-Greg Meehan | Stanford Director of Women's Swimming
“Elliot is an excellent fit with our program. He has robust knowledge, a growth mindset, and a hunger to move athletes from good to great. We exist to build leaders for life and Elliot brings another layer of expertise and experience to deliver an amazing experience to our student-athletes. I also want to welcome Shana to the Queen City.”
-Jeff Dugdale | Queens Associate Athletic Director for Creative Services/Director of Swimming
