I sat down with SwimSwam Editor-in-Cheif, Braden Keith, to discuss the recent news of Chrissi Rawak withdrawing as USA Swimming’s CEO. Braden gave us a peek behind the curtain as to what he went through in the last 36 hours to break this story and follow leads as it developed.
This started with USA Swimming announcing Friday night that Rawak would not be the new CEO “due to unforeseen personal circumstances”, which evolved as a text message came to light that Rawak sent to her Delaware athletic coworkers explaining that her mother in law had just passed away.
However, as Braden explains, that didn’t seem like the end of the story, and it wasn’t. We learned yesterday that after Rawak had been announced as CEO, there had been a SafeSport complaint filed against her regarding her conduct while coaching at the University of Michigan. Rawak resigned within 24 hours of USA Swimming being notified of the allegation.
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:43 How the Story Developed
- 7:30 Why Chrissi Rawak Will Not be CEO
- 11:38 How USA Swimming Moves Forward
Any nominations for Brent Lang? 88 Olympian and the President and CEO and a board member of Vocera Communications. Also from Michigan. Haven’t checked Safe Sport, yet.
It would be pretty unusual for the CEO of a company that makes $300 million/year+ to want to take this big of a step down in salary.
Whoever takes over has a huge uphill battle to climb, so to take that big of a paycut to walk into such a bad situation….maybe if you have a real itch to do something new.
Vocera was bought by Stryker. Brent could be tanned, rested and ready.
Alex Shackell to IU, just posted to her Insta
Braden’s reference to “incidents” vs “incident” is concerning.
Hey Braden just on a side note, way off topic I have a question. I’m noticing your T-shirt!!? LOL 🤣
I’m from the Philly area. Where exactly did you get that- is that available online for purchase?
I’m just curious if you want to reach out to me privately on my email address attached to the question. Thank you. And thanks also for the video above.
My friend Michelle sells them on Etsy!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Dinkadelphia
When, exactly, was the Complaint filed. With whom was it filed ?
According to other reports I’ve read it was filed with safesport after her hiring was announced
^^^
Lowkey fishy/ ridiculous right? She gets some spotlight and someone from lord knows when decides to complain NOW?
The Clown Show continues at USA Swimming.
Braden, have you reached out to Jim Richardson, her direct supervisor at University of Michigan? Former co-workers? Former athletes?
not to catastrophize but it looks like after a historically embarrassing olympic performance in paris, usa swimming is now leaderless 3 years out from a home olympics, all while its university-based training hubs face financial and organizational insolvency…