The elections for the open positions on the USA Swimming Board of Directors concluded this afternoon and the House of Delegates members voted the incumbents out of their positions.
Jack Bauerle, Brent Lang, and Kate Lundsten will take over At-Large positions on the board that were previously filled by Clark Hammond and Ira Klein. Bauerle and Lundsten both meet the coach criteria and Lang is a former Olympian. They will all serve four year terms on the Board, which will conclude in 2029.
Despite only two spots belonging to incumbents Klein and Hammond, there was an extra At-Large position open on the board due to Bob Vincent‘s resignation when he took over as USA Swimming’s interim CEO.
Billy Doughty was also elected to take over as the Chair of the National Team Steering Committee through 2028, taking over Frank Busch‘s position.
The USA Swimming Board of Directors has faced a lot of backlash in the last year, particularly after it took them more than a year to hire a full-time CEO. They announced the new CEO 371 days after former CEO Tim Hinchey’s resignation on September 4th.
In August, SwimSwam endorsed voting the incumbents out, which is exactly what happened in the election.
The voting for the 10-Year Athlete Representative position being vacated by Maya DiRado ended in a tie between Andrew Gemmell and Andrew Seliskar. As a result, the election was reopened and will close at 7 p.m EST tomorrow.
The Athletes’ Advisory Council also received new members with Phoebe Bacon, Gunnar Bentz, Lilly King, and Alex Walsh all being elected.
Very Brief Bios on the New Board of Directors Members
- Jack Bauerle – Head coach at the University of Georgia for 43 years, winning seven NCAA team titles.
- Billy Doughty – The CEO/head swim coach of DART Swimming in California and childhood coach of the United States’ lone 2025 men’s World Champion Luca Urlando
- Brent Lang – A former swimmer at the University of Michigan and 1988 Olympian, Lang spent nine years as the CEO of publicly traded Vocera Communications, which was sold to Stryker in 2022. Until December 2024, he was a BOD member and treasurer for USA Gymnastics, where he was recruited following the organization’s sexual abuse scandal.
- Kate Lundsten – Head Coach of the Aquajets Swim Team in Minnesota since 2004. She has served on several international staffs, including 2017 World Juniors, 2018 Junior Pan Pacs, and 2019 Pan Am Games.
I thought Doughty withdrew for a committee position appointment by Ring?
Also, do we think that USAS was trolling SS sending them to a random community center when Katie Hoff’s posting video of interviews on the blue carpet?
Took the steering committee chair position, which is a board position as well
Coach Bauerle is THE man. His wisdom, kindness, sense of humor and plain talk ability should help this board be laser focused.
Is this our NLF?
So on paper these all seem like solid/good choices but I’ve been fooled by the best for decades now so consider me skeptical until I see actual meaningful changes.
What is the board member application process actually like? Do they get interviewed and asked about what kind of change they envision? Or is it simply resume based?
This is a rhetorical question of course as USA swimming would never release any info like that now would they?
Great a new board member who was fired from his job because of NCAA violations
Uhhh which of these coaches do you think was fired for NCAA violations?
I’m not aware of any that statement would apply to. Maybe I missed something? I assume you’re referring to Bauerle/Kalisz, but…Bauerle was not fired for that.
Where is the message board about GG. Why are these awards so secretive lol
They’re not doing a live stream. Reid is there in a room by himself watching a closed circuit feed…that froze.
Whole event is tragic. Killed the live recap because there’s nothing to live recap.
So glad they can’t even do the littlest amount of work to provide exposure to the sport. They can’t setup an iPhone and stream it on YouTube for free?
Did Swimswam take down Golden Goggles article or did they just get the wrong date?
They’re not doing a live stream. Reid is there in a room by himself watching a closed circuit feed…that froze.
Whole event is tragic. Killed the live recap because there’s nothing to live recap.
Congratulations! May the new board be more effective than the old board.