Karen Stump

The Low-Down on Karen

Karen has a lifetime love of sports, racing, and outdoors.  Starting a 40 year span of competitive swimming at age 5, she has also enjoyed triathlon, adventure racing, volleyball, backpacking and caving, among others. While earning a degree in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech, she expanded her love of the outdoors as a Wilderness EMT on a mountain and cave search and rescue crew. Triathlons, Xtrerra, and 24-72 hour adventure races were the next big thing, while still keeping her toes in the pool.  Karen moved to Wilmington in 2010 and has coached swimming, weight lifting, cross country, and track & field since. The past 5 years have brought back a love of sprint swimming, an exploration of innovative training, and a reinvention of herself as an athlete.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

At age 45 Karen swam the fastest she has in her long career.  After switching from traditional swim training with a focus on yardage to experimenting with training focused on higher intensity but lower yardage, she made significant drops in all her events.  The results include current World Aquatics #1 ranking in 50 meter butterfly (age 45-49), multiple national and world records.  Her success exemplifies her favorite quote, “Don’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream the further you get.”  Michael Phelps

Teaching All Dogs New Tricks

Karen has applied this training to the high school team she coaches with measurable results.  Every swimmer has dropped time with double the number of state championship qualifying times than previous years.  Her philosophies include proper technique, efficient stroke mechanics, total body muscle recruitment, purposeful drills, and intentional intensity training and recovery.  This can be applied no matter the goal distance.  Competition keeps her relevant and thoughtful as a coach.  She constantly tests drills and workouts on herself, fine tuning them before passing along to her swimmers.  Her experience and coaching is highly beneficial to the competitive swimmer, triathlete, as well as casual and novice swimmers of all ages.

What She Coaches

Swimming – Endless Pool Coaching – Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Elite Swimmers.  Youth Swimmers

Favorite Events

50 Butterfly, 100 Butterfly, 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke, 100IM

Karen’s Mantra

“Don’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream the further you get.” – Michael Phelps

Fun Facts

Behind the blocks song—Dragula, by Rob Zombie

First triathlon win was on an old steel mountain bike.

Has backpacked over 500 miles on the Appalachian Trail

Recent Accomplishments

2023 & 2024 World Aquatics #1 Ranking in 50 Meter Butterfly

10  x  USMS & YMCA National Records

31  x  USMS National #1 Swims (All American)

130 x  USMS National Top 10 Swim