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≡ USA SWIMMING ≡
Swimming World Magazine posted the internal USA Swimming 2025 budget documentation from 19 December 2024, showing a healthy $39.75 million in revenue and a surplus of $99,532 at the end of the year.
By outward appearances, this is down considerably from the 2023 and 2024 revenue totals of $45.23 million (audited) and $44.41 million (expected), but is in fact quite healthy for a post-Olympic year. From the audited financial statements, recent revenue totals were:
● 2017: $43.09 million revenue
● 2018: $32.86 million
● 2019: $46.48 million
● 2020: $36.39 million
● 2021: $42.53 million ~ Olympic year
● 2022: $29.34 million
● 2023: $45.23 million
● 2024: $44.41 million ~ Olympic year (estimate)
The 2017 figures included $6.55 million in investment income, and the 2022 revenue total was hurt by $7.69 million in investment losses. Removing those shows operating revenues for those years of:
● 2017: $36.54 million operating revenue
● 2022: $37.03 million operating revenue
● 2025: $39.75 million projected
The major difference in operating income between the $44.41 million in 2024 and the $39.75 million projected for 2025 is the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, which netted revenue of $5.11 million. The major sources of 2025 revenue:
● $24.93 million: membership
● $5.68 million: sponsorships
● $5.19 million: USOPC grants
● $1.64 million: USA Swimming Foundation grants
● $1.38 million: events
These amounts are similar to 2024 except for the USOPC grants, which are expected to be down from the $6.08 million total in 2024.
The major operating expense categories include:
● $10.26 million: national team
● $9.89 million: sport development
● $4.53 million: event operations
● $5.08 million: commercial programs
● $4.10 million: insurance and risk management
● $1.45 million: executive operations
● $2.39 million: finance and operations
● $1.64 million: business affairs
Operating expenses are expected to total $39.65 million, with a projected surplus of $99,532, much smaller than the $2.202 million gain in 2024 (thanks to the Trials), but well ahead of losses in 2022 ($1.29 million) and 2023 ($538,513).
Support for the national team was down 15% compared to the Olympic year of 2024, but up by 15% compared to the last post-Olympic year in 2022.
This is a solid budget, with USA Swimming in the midst of a search for a new chief executive, with former Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Shana Ferguson serving as the interim chief executive and possible future chief executive of the organization.
The question for the USA Swimming board going forward – and influencing its consideration of a new chief executive – will be the potential for substantial growth in memberships and sponsorships with the 2028 Olympic Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028.
Although some incremental additions will come naturally, can USA Swimming really develop extra enthusiasm for its programs in the run-up to 2028? That eluded many U.S. national federations trying to capitalize on the prior U.S. hostings in Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996. It isn’t easy and will require considerable imagination in both concepts and executions in 2026-27-28.
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