Let’s be blunt: if you own a swim club in the U.S. right now, this episode should punch you in the gut — and wake you up.
Because today on the GMM Podcast, I sit down with Tom Ugast, CEO of Nation’s Capital Swim Club, a team that’s been at the top of USA Swimming’s rankings more years than it hasn’t. But Tom didn’t inherit a machine. He rebuilt one — from the turmoil of the Curl-Burke collapse — and turned it into one of the nation’s top-producing clubs with a long list of Olympic swimmers including the greatest female swimmer in history: Katie Ledecky.
This conversation is part of a series I’m doing with club leaders who’ve built empires, not just teams. I’ve already talked with Mike Koleber of Nitro Swimming and Chris Davis of SwimAtlanta. Tom rounds out that trio — and he brings something different to the table.
Tom didn’t come up through the traditional coaching ladder. He came out of the private sector, running a 200-person publishing business, moving millions of units for brands like Time and The Economist. When the 2008 crash hit, he pivoted — and brought every ounce of that business discipline back to the pool deck.
The result? One of the most important club turnarounds in U.S. swimming history.
And look — I’m on a mission right now. This isn’t a content grab. This is a war room.
USA Swimming registration was flat in an Olympic year — something that’s never happened before. If that doesn’t rattle you, you’re not paying attention. The base of the sport is eroding.
So I’m going to the front lines. To the people who’ve figured out how to win — not with excuses, but with execution.
In this episode, we get into:
- How private-sector business systems saved NCAP
- What USA Swimming can learn from club operators
- Why flat 2024 registration is a 5-alarm fire for USA Swimming
- Why media and storytelling aren’t optional anymore — they’re survival
- How AAU’s return could change the entire playing field – or not
If you’re a club coach, club owner, board member, or swim parent — and you actually care about the future of this sport — listen to this episode. Not because it’s comfortable. Because it’s true. And because the clock to LA 2028 is already ticking. LFG!
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Many thanks to Swimoutlet.com for their 13 years partnership and support of this swimming news and media.
This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
I wish this had been pinned to the homepage—there was so much to discuss, but now it’s buried under newer articles. I’ve been trying to distill the dysfunction at the corporate level of USA Swimming, and I think this podcast offers some solid insight.
It seems like there are two competing visions for the organization, and neither side has been able to take control.
One camp wants the organization to be run with a business-first mindset and is pushing for the next CEO to come from a strong corporate or executive background. The other camp prioritizes clubs and grassroots development, and wants someone deeply rooted in the swimming community to lead the organization. Is that a fair assessment of… Read more »
This is one of the most underachieving clubs in USA Swimming and even though Ugast plays “dumb” about Rick Curl’s misdeeds, he, along with most veteran members of that club and LSC KNEW what happened before the 💩 hit the fan back in 2012. It was the WORST kept secret in USA Swimming!
NCAP is a terrible representation of club swimming lol. Paying $7000 a year with dozens of sites, just to produce far less college athletes compared to local public teams is comical.
What? NCAP has always been producing far more collegiate athletes compared to every single local club in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland region. An example I can easily use is the 2025 USA Swimming Scholastic All-American Team, which NCAP had over 27 athletes in, which accounted for exactly 60% of the entire Potomac Valley Swimming Roster, not to mention a lot of these NCAP swimmers have already committed to collegiate teams such as the University of Virginia and Texas at Austin. The nearest club to NCAP was RMSC, which only had 8. So, statistically speaking, saying that NCAP produces far fewer collegiant athletes compared to local public clubs like RMSC would be far from wrong.
Let me offer a dumb as dirt, simple theory about 2024’s flat registration; your milage may vary. It’s the dysfunctional USA Swimming IT system!
We all know what a fiasco the new, web based registration was. It continues to this day. I’m a part time coach who works at a School District aquatic center. I don’t need to be a certified USA Swim Coach to do my job, but I like to be certified to be able to do all the things certified coaches do. Since the change over, I have been unable to determine what things I have to do, and through which organization (national USA Swimming, the Zone, Safe Sport, Red Cross…) to check all the boxes.… Read more »
Yes, we know SWIM3.0 directly impacted registration. We know a number of clubs registered AAU as a result– because the process was more streamlined. (We will detail and unpack this later after Summer Nationals.)
The SWIMS database has been really tough on your smaller, parent-run orgs with part time coaches who are former swimmers and have full time jobs. The fact of the matter is we just don’t have time to fight with tech and red tape. I wish the answer was combine all the small teams but in a rural area that’s not feasible. Umbrella clubs with satellites? I don’t know but there has to be a better way to pool club volunteers and pare down how many parent boards have to do the same thing.
I really liked this podcast. This top-down structure, it’s as if NCAP is actually running like an umbrella with all the satellite pools and staffs. I think… Read more »
For most men, getting the scholarship and afterward making six figures while doing masters is better than being dirt poor and trying to qualify for the olympics. I would assume the same goes for women
There are too many other sports. Swimmers go to water polo, kids triathletes, running, cross country, track with all of its permutations, Marathon, ultra Marathon, lax, tennis, pickle ball, paddle tennis, Ninja warrior stuff you see on tv, all variations of karate , gymnastics, not even counting basketball who now has Caitlin Clark, football, and baseball. It is not as much fun to watch and the repetitiveness is not entertaining. With the NCAA now allowing $ to NCAA athletes in football and basketball and virtually $0 to elite NCAA swimmers I am surprised the numbers have not plummeted.
NIL and its collective pay for football and basketball will kill swimming at the University level. Sure, there may be five schools that have swimmers, but that won’t be enough to attract kids to the sport. Eventually, the top five Universities will have all foreign swimmers, and USA swimming will be dead, just like the USMNT in soccer.
NCap, in my opinion, is overrated. If you have a thousand plus swimmers from around the DMV you’re going to end up with some fast ones- in fact, if you really drill down, there are only a few sites within NCap that actually produce elite swimmers, it’s very site-specific and has zero to do with the CEO.
NCap has lots of issues so let’s not pretend it’s going to solve the problems of club swimming or USA swimming- the coaches are paid very poorly, the training schedules are decades-old with little innovation, there are persistent SafeSport complaints that do not get addressed.
NCap rides on the coattails of Ledecky and that, frankly, had do with luck. She probably would have… Read more »
Agree. Have experience with NCAP in its previous incarnation. Lots of swimmers, the stars get attention, the rest are ignored. The people I know with past swimming experience send their kids to other teams. Mega teams are not the answer for many.
NCAP is not for everyone and there are lots of great clubs in DMV. You might enjoy the interview if you listen to it as Tom is a nice and compelling guy who has played a role in many learning the sport, swimming in high school and college, and yes becoming national team members and Olympic medalists. Leaders like him around the nation are why swimming has endured and is likely to do so in the future.
“The media’s obsession with NCAP is lazy” lol like mate what are you on about? The biggest swimming website has interviewed the CEO of the biggest club exactly once in 13 years. Is the “obsession” in the room with us?
This is sports. “Had to do with luck” is the crux of really anything that happens ever in this industry. Just say you hate sports man.
Huh? Media obsession with NCAP? In our 13 years of covering swimming this is our first podcast interview with the CEO. And, I interviewed Tom because he’s running a large-scale business, which provides him a big scope of the culture. Moreover, Tom has served on the USA Swimming board (was nearly the Board Chair, missed it by one vote) and past board experience matters right now as we have a current board that is 342 days into a CEO search (after they failed with their first CEO candidate pick back in Feb because that person swiftly got a Safe Sport claim).
Yeah, but you have to consider the fact that NBAC has declined significantly ever since Michael Phelps halted his swimming career. They haven’t been ranked as a gold medal designated team since 2017, and they have not developed as many Olympic and Olympic Trials athletes as they did during the days of Phelps. Overall, they are not as dominant as they were.
I think you missed the whole point of the interview. They spent about 5 minutes ever even talking about performance, and 75 minutes talking about business, structure, and organizational modeling. It was not a performance interview, the guy is the CEO and the podcast focused accordingly.
Great discussion on the Board, CEO and staff of USA swimming. That explains a lot of the dysfunction when Boards meddle and don’t let the organization run, requiring “mother may I” on operational decisions.
Tom’s past board experience is insightful, and he comes at this topic from a point of view that is not negative. Most of the board members are his friends, and he wants them to be successful.