About Us

At Chattahoochee Gold Swimming, we believe swimming is more than a sport—it’s a way to build character, confidence, and community. For more than 30 years, Gold has been developing athletes throughout Georgia, instilling teamwork, discipline, and excellence in every lane. Today, with six locations and a growing Gold family, we are proud to carry that tradition into an exciting new chapter.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to create a positive, supportive environment where effort, respect, and teamwork are the foundation of success. Through structured training, high-caliber coaching, and strong parent partnerships, we are committed to helping swimmers reach their personal best while developing the values of sportsmanship, responsibility, leadership, and community.

OUR VISION

At Chattahoochee Gold Swimming, our vision is to be more than a swim team — we strive to be a community where athletes grow into leaders.


From swimmers taking their first steps into competitive swimming to athletes competing at the highest levels of the sport, we believe every swimmer deserves the opportunity to develop confidence, discipline, resilience, and lifelong skills both in and out of the water.

WHO WE ARE

Chattahoochee Gold is a year-round competitive swim club serving athletes across six locations throughout Georgia and the greater Augusta-Aiken region. We provide professional coaching at every level, led by an experienced staff committed to organized, engaging, and challenging training.


Beyond developing great swimmers, our goal is to develop great people.


When Pat and Beth Murphy founded Chattahoochee Gold in 1992, they envisioned more than a team—they envisioned a culture built around integrity, hard work, community, and inspiration.


That vision quickly took shape. In 1996, with the support of the community, Chattahoochee Gold helped build a pre-Olympic training site at our former Woodstock location, complete with a 50-meter pool. That same summer, the Russian Olympic swim team trained in Woodstock and stayed with local families, creating an unforgettable moment of international connection and inspiration.


That spirit continues to define Gold today. We want our athletes to discover what can happen when expectations are exceeded and hard work meets opportunity.


Talent may be God-given, but effort is ours to own—and at Gold, effort is celebrated every day. This is a place where commitment, integrity, and inspiration guide our athletes and where swimmers train together in a positive atmosphere that fosters respect, unity, and a genuine love for the sport.

legacy of leadership

For more than three decades, Chattahoochee Gold was guided by Pat and Beth Murphy, whose vision and dedication shaped generations of swimmers.


Pat, a University of Southern Mississippi graduate, spent nearly forty years coaching throughout the Southeast, developing swimmers who qualified for the Olympic Trials in every stroke and earning national recognition for consistency and excellence.


Beth was equally instrumental in building the Gold community, balancing her career in business and coaching while raising their daughter and helping create an environment where young athletes could succeed in the pool while growing into confident, capable people.


Together, the Murphys built more than a swim team—they built a family and a legacy.

A NEW CHAPTER

In the summer of 2025, Pat and Beth passed the torch to Coach Mike Wardwell, beginning the next chapter of Chattahoochee Gold Swimming.


Mike brought with him his established program in Peachtree City, expanding Gold to four locations and bringing together two coaching traditions under one organization. The expansion represented more than simply adding another pool—it created new opportunities for swimmers, coaches, and families while strengthening the foundation for Gold's future.


That growth continued in 2026 with the addition of the Aiken-Augusta Swim League, expanding the Gold family to six locations and extending our community into the Augusta, GA and Aiken, SC region.


The Aiken-Augusta Swim League brings with it an extraordinary history of its own. Founded in 1969, ASL has been recognized throughout the state and country as a strong year-round swimming program dedicated to developing accomplished swimmers and successful people.


For generations, ASL's coaches have provided a guided age-group program for swimmers beginning around age six, serving athletes from those entering the sport to highly competitive and accomplished swimmers. At its heart, the program has emphasized many of the same principles that have long defined Gold: sportsmanship, teamwork, personal development, and the belief that the lessons learned through swimming can last a lifetime.


Bringing these communities together represents an exciting evolution of Chattahoochee Gold.


While each location carries its own history, relationships, and traditions, we are united by a shared belief that great coaching should develop the whole athlete — physically, emotionally, intellectually, and personally.


HONORING OUR PAST.

BUILDING OUR FUTURE.


The Gold of today is built upon decades of work by the coaches, swimmers, families, and communities who came before us.


From the founding of the Aiken-Augusta Swim League in 1969, to the creation of Chattahoochee Gold in 1992, to an Olympic training summer in Woodstock in 1996, to a new generation of leadership and expansion beginning in 2025, our story has always been about what becomes possible when talented people come together around a shared purpose.


Under Coach Mike Wardwell's leadership, Chattahoochee Gold now enters its next era as a six-location organization—honoring the traditions that built each of our programs while creating new opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and athlete development.


lOOKING AHEAD

Today, Chattahoochee Gold continues to champion the value of coach-owned, coach-driven swimming.


We are proud to provide our families with stability, professionalism, exceptional coaching, and a clear pathway for athlete development. But medals, times, and championships are only part of what success means to us.


Our greater responsibility is helping raise the next generation of leaders.


We want our swimmers to leave Gold understanding how to work toward something difficult, how to be a great teammate, how to respond when things don't go their way, how to lead with integrity, and how to believe in what they are capable of becoming.


Because at Chattahoochee Gold, what we're building has always been bigger than swimming.


We're building confidence. We're building character. We're building community. And together, we're building the future—one stroke, one practice, and one swimmer at a time.