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≡ WHAT GOES ON HERE? ≡
As USA Swimming finished its summer nationals in Irvine, the chatter over the performance of the American team at the World Aquatics Championships continued unabated.
During the meet, the U.S. performance – 29 medals to lead all nations (9-11-9) – was criticized by American legends Rowdy Gaines, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, with Gaines observing:
“We’re far from killing it. It’s a major struggle, and we can’t hide our heads in the sand and say this is just a blip.”
He acknowledged the sickness issues that started in the pre-meet training camp in Thailand and inexperience, but also pointed to a lack of leadership in the organization; USA Swimming has not having a chief executive in place since August 2024.
Gaines followed up with a lengthy editorial given to the leader swim news sites, SwimSwam.com and SwimmingWorldMagazine.com last week, which underscored his concerns, noting
“[The athletes] haven’t failed. But the system that’s supposed to support them? That’s another story.”
USA Swimming replied on Friday, in a statement given to the BigFriendlySwimPodcast and posted on its Instagram page, credited to interim chief executive Bob Vincent:
“We respect and value the opinions of Rowdy, Michael, Ryan, and all USA Swimming alums. We acknowledge that their comments come from a place of passion and genuine desire to see USA Swimming succeed.
“We are saddened and disappointed at the timing of the comments. The USA Swimming team battled severe illness in Singapore, and these comments added public scrutiny to an already challenging situation for our athletes and coaches.
“We are incredibly proud of the resilience of our team in the face of such difficult circumstances and remain confident in the leadership, strategic direction, and culture established by newly appointed National Team Managing Director Greg Meehan.
“USA Swimming has reached out directly to Rowdy and other notable alums in recent months, offering them a forum, including an invitation to join in a more official manner. The door remains open, as the only path forward for our sport is to work collectively to achieve a shared vision of success. We remain focused on the task at hand: winning LA28.”
Phelps replied in the comments, questioning why USA Swimming did not post the reply on its own Web site, or went it to other outlets which cover swimming. He later added:
“@bigfriendlyswimpodcast maybe a false statement, [because] I know they didn’t reach out to rowdy. They’ve shoved us out the door for years. Treated me like a piece of meat thro my career. Hopefully it changes someday….”
BigFriendlySwimPodcast replied that the statement was provided to it by USA Swimming.
Observed: This is not a good situation and having legendary alumni and supporters like Gaines, Lochte and Phelps being publicly critical is a bad look. And who booked that Thailand trip?
Those are the least of the issues right now. USA Swimming needs to find its leader and that’s up to its Board of Directors. Moreover, the reference to being focused “on the task at hand: winning LA28” is troubling.
USA Swimming is charged with the governance of swimming in the U.S., from age group to masters, not just the Olympic team performance. The federation has 376,479 members at the end of 2024, yet faces significant headwinds from alternative outlets, such as AAU Swimming.
Further, the feeder system for the national team, NCAA Division I, is in chaos with the future of “non-revenue” sports such as swimming and diving in real future danger. And mentioning only the 2028 Olympic Games disparages – by silence – the World Aquatics Championships, also an important achievement, promotional and outreach platform for the sport in the U.S., and other competitions.
Gaines asks, where is the vision that will leverage USA Swimming’s historical greatness, its life-saving and personal-development programs in club swimming and water safety and use its Congressionally-mandated “vertical structure” in the sport to bring forward private and public funding to support the life skill of swimming … as well as the national team.
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