100 Days: The Fight to Save Cal Poly Swimming & Diving

This op-ed is courtesy of  Katherine Vanbourgondien, a former collegiate swimmer at William & Mary who is the director of 100 Days, a documentary about the fight to save the Cal Poly swim and dive program.

As a former Division I swimmer, I never imagined that my swim team could simply disappear.

In 2020, my team at William & Mary was cut. Overnight, a program with decades of history was gone. While our team was ultimately reinstated, the experience opened my eyes to a reality facing athletes across the country: there is no guaranteed safety with non-revenue-generating sports.

Now, that reality became even more clear with the settlement of House v. NCAA.

That’s what led me to want to produce and direct 100 Days, a documentary about the fight to save the Cal Poly swim and dive team that started on March 7th, 2025.

Hundreds of college sports programs have already been cut, and thousands more athletes face an uncertain future. 100 Days tells the story of the Cal Poly swim and dive team who had less than a hundred days to raise $25 million to save its program. Through the eyes of head coach Kim Carlson, we follow a journey that begins with building a successful team and ends with a desperate fight to keep it alive.

As Kim retraces those pivotal months, we hear from swimmers who once called Cal Poly’s pool home and learn how a program that produced conference champions, record holders, and Olympic Trials qualifiers found itself fighting for survival.

Despite raising millions of dollars and rallying a passionate community of alumni, parents, and supporters, the team ultimately fell short of the goal it was given. Cal Poly’s swim and dive program was cut, leaving behind an empty pool and countless unanswered questions.

But Cal Poly is not an isolated case.

Its story represents a growing crisis affecting college athletics across the country. Non-revenue sports such as swimming, track and field, gymnastics, tennis, and many others are increasingly vulnerable as schools navigate mounting financial pressures and a new era of athlete compensation.

This is why we are making 100 Days.

The film is not just about swimming. It is about what happens when people are forced to fight for something they love. It is about athletes who dedicate years of their lives to a sport, coaches who build programs from the ground up, and communities that refuse to let those opportunities disappear without a fight.

Most importantly, it is about bringing awareness to an issue that many people still do not fully see. The future of non-revenue sports is being decided right now. By telling Kim’s story, we hope to spark a broader conversation about what college athletics should look like for the next generation.

Because if programs can disappear overnight, the question is no longer whether this can happen. The question is where it happens next.

If you are interesting in supporting this film please check us out at 100 Days – Film and Storytelling | Seed&Spark or at our Instagram @lane.eight.productions.