Ron Aitken

After a successful career as a swimmer at UNLV, where he served as the team captain his senior year, Ron Aitken’s first coaching job started in 1994 working with the 8-and-unders for the Sandpipers of Nevada. He quickly continued to climb the coaching ranks, being named the head coach of the Sandpipers in 1996 and the head coach of the Bishop Gorman High School swim team in 1999. In 2006, Aitken started Bodyline Swim Shop out of his garage and has since moved it to a thriving brick-and-mortar location.

Now, with nearly 30 years of coaching experience, Aitken has built an impressive resume on the local level serving as the executive director, head coach and CEO of the Sandpipers of Nevada and on the national and international level with USA Swimming. The Sandpipers, along with being recognized among the few Gold Medal Swim Clubs in the country, continue to offer a comprehensive program that satisfies the needs of novice swimmers to Olympic athletes.

Aitken’s coaching philosophy, rooted in encouraging kids to have fun while focusing on achieving their goals, has produced versatile swimmers at all levels of success – from state champions to current world record holders. Aitken has continued to establish himself as one of the nation’s top coaches, qualifying swimmers at multiple international levels.

A testament to his approach to training, Sandpiper swimmers have qualified for Olympic trials in every event in all strokes. Notably, Aitken has developed eight Olympians, representing three countries since 2016 (Bowe Becker, Katie Grimes, Cody Miller, Bella Sims, Erica Sullivan, Claire Weinstein for the U.S.; Ilya Kharun for Canada; and Rebecca Diaconescu for Romania). In 2022, he was named as an official coach, and one of the few club coaches, on the U.S. World Championship team that included Kharun, Grimes, Sims and Weinstein.

The success of Aitken’s swimmers isn’t limited to the four walls of the pool. His focus on open water swimming quickly put the Sandpipers on the map as one of the premier open water programs in the country. In 2024, Aitken was named the Open Water head coach for the U.S. Olympic team in Paris, where he led both the men’s and women’s marathon swimming teams. The Sandpiper representation in Paris also included Weinstein, one of the youngest swimmers competing, and Grimes, who was the first American to compete in both pool and open water events.

A consummate professional and teacher, Aitken has encouraged his swimmers to challenge themselves in the pool and the classroom. He has grown the Sandpipers to nearly 500 swimmers out of Las Vegas looking to continue his run of excellence.