James Malechek Added To Staff

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- James Malechek has been named the assistant athletic performance coach for the University of Iowa men’s wrestling program, the announcement was made Monday by head coach Tom Brands.

Malechek comes to Iowa City after serving as a strength and conditioning specialist at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. 

Prior to his time in the sunshine state, Malechek spent seven years with the Chinese national and provincial swimming programs. He served as head performance coach for the Guangdong Swimming Association in 2025 after spending six years (2018-24) as head performance coach and dryland trainer for the China National Swimming Team.

During his tenure with China's national program, athletes won three Olympic gold medals, three Olympic silver medals and five Olympic bronze medals. They also won seven world championship titles and set three world records.

Malechek worked directly with several of the world's top swimmers, including Olympic champion and multiple-time world medalist Zhang Yufei and world-record holder Qin Haiyang, who became the first swimmer to sweep the 50-, 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events at a single World Championships.

Before joining the Chinese National Team, Malechek served as head strength and conditioning coach for the Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League from 2017-18, overseeing all aspects of the organization's performance training and athlete development systems.

Malechek also completed a fellowship with the University of Michigan's Olympic Sports Performance Department from 2016-17, where he assisted with strength and conditioning programs for NCAA Division I student-athletes, including wrestling and women's volleyball.

In 2016, Malechek completed an internship with the National Strength and Conditioning Association in Colorado Springs, Colorado, working with Olympic, professional, tactical, youth and general performance athletes.

A former collegiate wrestler, Malechek was a four-year starter at Wisconsin-Parkside, earning NCAA Division II All-America honors in 2012. He was a two-time national qualifier and three-time Academic All-American.

Malechek also gained wrestling coaching experience as a volunteer assistant at Lindenwood University from 2014-16 and began his coaching career as an assistant wrestling coach at Kenosha Tremper High School in Wisconsin.

A Kewaunee, Wisconsin, native, Malechek earned a master's degree in human performance with an emphasis in strength and conditioning from Lindenwood in 2015, where he also served as a graduate assistant within the athletics department. He earned a bachelor's degree in sport fitness management from Wisconsin-Parkside in 2013.

Malechek holds Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC), Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator (TSAC-F) and Functional Movement Screen (FMS) certifications.