Swim and dive adds Olympic gold medalist Kristine Quance Julian to coaching staff

This post was updated Nov. 22 at 5:56 p.m.

There’s a new face in Westwood, and she brings quite the resume with her.

After leading UCLA swim and dive to its best Pac-12 finish since 2014 in her first year, coach Jordan Wolfrum has now added volunteer assistant coach Kristine Quance Julian to the coaching staff.

Quance Julian is a two-time Honda Sport Award winner – which recognizes the top collegiate female athlete in a given sport – and three-time Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year at USC from 1994-97. She also swam the breaststroke leg of the 4×100 medley relay to win an Olympic gold medal in 1996.

But for all the achievements the 23-time All-American racked up as an athlete, Wolfrum said Quance Julian brings just as much – if not more – to the table as a coach.

“The truth is, as great as she was a swimmer, she may be even better (as) a coach,” Wolfrum said. “She has been coaching for over a decade … alongside her husband, who is also a brilliant coach. To have access to somebody like that – who has been coaching great swimming for longer than I’ve been coaching – and have them want to be a part of what we’re doing, we’re so unbelievably lucky.”

The USC Hall of Famer, inducted in 2015, captained the team as a senior to an NCAA championship. Her son, Trenton Julian, a senior swimmer at California, helped lead the Golden Bears to a 2019 NCAA championship and a third consecutive Pac-12 title.

Quance Julian took note of the all-female women’s swim coaching staff at Cal. She values strong female leadership as one reason why UCLA stood out to her.

“(Wolfrum) and I were actually talking a couple of days ago trying to figure out how many other all female coaching staffs there were out there. Besides Cal, we couldn’t think of any others,” Quance Julian said. “So I’m really excited about being part of that. Between having a single gender program and having a woman in charge, those were kind of the things that really attracted me to the program.”

Six-time UCLA Director’s Honor Roll awardee and senior swimmer Lia Foster said Quance Julian volunteering her time to coach UCLA is something the student-athletes are extremely grateful for.

“To have someone who knows the sport that well, and to have competed at the highest level possible basically, is not only inspiring but motivating,” Foster said. “She’s a true asset to have on the team, just because her knowledge is so high. And she’s earned that respect, and she has our respect. To have her want to give us some of her time is pretty crazy and special.”

As the associate head coach at Rose Bowl Aquatics since 2004, Quance Julian has earned five American Swimming Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year for the Southern California region honors in addition to her athletes setting multiple National Age Group and Southern California Swimming records.

Wolfrum said she is already learning from Quance Julian daily and is excited to continue working together. Specifically, Wolfrum said the collegiate 20-time individual champion brings forth a new skill set compared to herself and the rest of the staff.

“She is a great technician,” Wolfrum said. “She’s got a great eye for strokes and she brings this whole other piece of experience that is different than what I have and different than what Karissa (Kruszewski), my assistant coach, has.”

Nearly two weeks after the announcement of Quance Julian joining the Bruin family, the new coach continues to rave about the team’s culture.

“It’s been fun to watch the women and they seem like a really good tight team,” Quance Julian said. “Going through all this crazy stuff in this world, I think that they probably don’t realize how fortunate they are, but they are so fortunate to have each other, to have that team.”