Sid Cassidy’s connection with excellence in the water goes back 40 years or more. He competed in high school, AAU – now known as USA Swimming – NCAA, Open Water and Beach Patrol. Later this year
Cassidy will serve as meet referee for the men’s open water swimming competition in the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cassidy was a key member of Salesianum School’s first Delaware state
swimming title in 1973. He won two individual titles for the championship: 200 and 400-meter freestyle – and was a member of the Sals’ winning 400-meter relay team. Cassidy’s swimming skills earned
him a scholarship to North Carolina State University where he had a standout career, achieving All-American status in 1975 and 1976. Cassidy won eight Atlantic Coast Conference individual swimming
titles – two in the 200, and three straight in the 500 and 1,650. He was part of the Wolfpack’s 800-meter relay team that swept three straight ACC meet titles. After college Cassidy became a
professional marathon swimmer (ranked 4th in the world at one time), and swam and coached a six-member team that set three records for the English Channel swim: England to France, France to England
and double-channel crossing. Cassidy had highly successful college swimming coaching stops at Tampa, Florida State, Miami and James Madison. Cassidy became a member of the FINA (Federation
Internationale de Natation) Technical Open Water Swimming Committee in 1996. The committee’s goal: get open water swimming as an Olympic medal sport. In 2005, Cassidy was inducted as an Honor
Administrator to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. A year later, Cassidy took over as chairman of the Open Water Swimming Committee and in 2008, at the Olympic Summer Games in Beijing; he was
the starter for the first Olympic 10K Open Water event. In 2009, Cassidy received the USA Swimming Award, the organization’s highest honor.  He is aquatics director and head swim coach at St.
Andrew’s Prep in Boca Raton, Fla. and is a four-time Florida High School Coach of the Year.