USA Swimming is about five weeks away from electing four members to its Board of Directors, and all signs point to a new CEO being in place before then.
While the hiring of a CEO will be somewhat of a pressure release for the steam kettle that the organization has become, this could be the most watched and contentious BOD elections in recent history, with calls coming out from many corners of the sport for members of the Board to resign.
SwimSwam has been asked by many of our readers to endorse candidates for the Board of Directors, and here’s the reality: we can’t do that.
The process is tightly-controlled one that is highly politicized somehow without any campaigning. The whole thing starts with a nominating committee that quietly chooses the candidates who get their designation on the ballot (though candidates can self-nominate, and are repeatedly labeled as such).
Candidates are not supposed to campaign in any significant way, and the few ways they are allowed to campaign, they generally don’t (at least not in any manner of substance).
Campaigning Rules:
The whole process creates a bit of a feedback loop, with accusations that CEO’s manipulate the selections to ensure their safety, even though the CEO is supposed to report to the Board of Directors.
Because the conversations are completely opaque and happen behind closed doors, without any media allowed in the process to provide accountability, everyone just kind of guesses at who would be best based on reputation. Jack Bauerle will probably win one of the two mandated coaches’ seats because of his success as a coach, though I don’t think anybody really knows what changes he would push within the organization.
My endorsement for the Board of Directors is similar to my endorsement for AAU. Do I think AAU will eventually reveal similar problems to USA Swimming? Absolutely. But their mere presence puts pressure on USA Swimming to be better.
Therefore, my official endorsement is this: vote the incumbents Ira Klein and Clark Hammond out of the Board of Directors. I have no opinion on who you should vote in their stead.
I know that people are going to send this to Ira and Clark and paint it as a personal affront. It’s not. I have no idea what Ira or Clark’s roles are on the board. I have no idea what they have and have not presented in meetings. Maybe they’re change makers. Maybe they’re not. But in the culture that has been fostered at USA Swimming, I have no way of knowing.
I know that “vote them all out” is a popular political cry well outside of the bounds of swimming these days. But at least in matters of government, there is some degree of transparency to decision-make.
We have quiet whispers of who will and won’t do what when members of the board, but when those whispers are made too quietly, it becomes harder to hear them.
So whether their replacements are more or less qualified to fill their seats is almost not the point. Board of Directors elections are not really serious endeavors as they currently exist, and the message that the House of Delegates should be sending is purely one of accountability. Until members of the Board of Directors believe there is actual accountability in their roles, they are never going to remember who they are designed to serve: the dues paying athletes, coaches, officials, and parent volunteers.
Remind them of that.
Vote for the person that acknowledges that the campaigning rules are ridiculous and must change.
Seems the first step to get a better board is to allow candidates to explain why they would be better board members.
who is currently on the House of Delegates?
https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2025-hod-list.pdf
Wait…there’s THAT many?!
the fact that it’s hard to understand the process and the previous article by Mel Stewart was also hard to follow is proof that the process itself is flawed. I am not saying I can suggest a better process but this is what I know:
A successful swim culture comes from raising swimmers from an age where they have enough runway (and not too long to burn out) to become competitive on the world stage before or around their peak. For most countries this requires a lot of planning, thinking, science, research, education and resources. AND sacrifices of course.
It’s not enough to raise a lot of 14 year olds who swim a 16:10 minute mile or 16 year olds… Read more »
hmmm…who can I use to deflect criticism of Board? Ahh yes, criticize college coaches!
Nice try.
“Unimaginative coach with a well paying head or assistant head coach job”–umm college coaching is generally not very well paid. The only well paid college coaches are the ones at the very top who have already produced results. Well paying assistant head coaching jobs basically do not exist.
Even the top college head coaches don’t make THAT much, when you compare it to other lines of work, and factor in the completely ridiculous hours being a D1 college head coach entails.
There are people with BS email jobs who make as much as D1 head coaches. Some of them even work at USA Swimming!
What is a true measurement of success, my dude?
Braden,
Thank you for publishing this and so many other articles. This topic seems too important for people to ignore. The little we can see and hear behind closed doors makes it a clear game of speculation. We have every right to demand more from the dysfunctional house of cards aka USA Swimming. If only there was a way to get more board members to speak open forum.
Why all the secrecy? Who the heck is USA SWIMMING accountable to? This million dollar enterprise is being run like an 8th grade girls social club.
They are accountable to a very small group of insiders who vote in the HOD, but in reality, the CEO and the current board have immense control over the vote because they hold all of the purse strings.
There are about 10 people nationally who decide the outcome of BOD elections, and it shows.
There are lots of quiet conversations in corners meant to “influence” (read: intimidate) voters who speak out at the HOD, though last year I think there was a bit of a loss of control vis-a-vis the “club dues increase” scheme. I think the HOD is starting to find its voice a bit after that. It’s much easier to find that voice on a specific issue than… Read more »
Cant say I understand much of this, but secrecy in a public organization rarely breeds success. Good luck USA Swimming!
So I don’t know much about Clark Hammond or Ira Klein, but i know they have been left off the nominating committee endorsed candidates list in this and the previous election. And then elected by the members of the (limited membership) club of members of the house of delegates. Maybe ira and Clark are advocating for the clubs and the parents (the ultimate financial client of USA swimming who go ignored at all levels) and maybe the house of delegates are on board with getting a real ground level club coach perspective on the board but usas wants no part of having grassroots voices in their elite level focus.
I think swimswam is hopelessly wrong in this article. … Read more »
These are the kind of excuses that keeps the same trash on the board.
Ira and Clark are the only members that can be addressed. We can’t vote out Katy Arris this cycle, so what are we going to do?
The culture has to change. The sport always has an excuse to protect the entrenched nonsense. Honestly the whole board should have been impeached. Just because Ira or Clark are your buddies doesn’t make them immune. And if they feel like they should be exempted, then they should come out and tell us what they’ve done to 1) speed up the hiring process of CEO and 2) to fight the hiring of a SafeSported CEO, at a BARE minimum.
But… Read more »
Awesome.
I am not a friend, backer, or in any way knowledgeable about the views of either Clark or Ira.
I am simply pointing out observations.
Let’s have a constructive criticism of the board and the members but let’s have it out. Let’s air it. Let’s not hide behind the bs opacity of this process if you truly want change.
Who is entrenched. Who is backing what idea ? What does this board believe in? If you are on the hod step up and share since you are very much more in an informationally entitled position than myself.
I think the people in the swimswam comments should get involved in the sport and make a difference!
“You should get involved and stop complaining!!” is peak USA Swimming circle-the-wagons nonsense, and we’re all kind of sick of hearing it.
I’d go to the scoreboard on that one, and I’m pretty sure the person you’re responding to would as well.
Most of the people complaining on swimswam are people who have tried to make a difference only to be ignored (or retaliated against) by USA Swimming.
We had a coach who got charged with a felony in our LSC, and USA Swimming did everything in their power to keep it under wraps and gaslight everyone about it. At one point they literally claimed another coach fabricated the charges.
The only reason anyone found out and the… Read more »
And what is your threshold for “getting involved in the sport” that allows people to have a voice?
Paying membership dues?
Officiating at meets?
Coaching?
Buying tickets to Olympic Trials?
Sharing news and information about the sport on social media so that it reaches a broader audience?
Volunteering at the concession stand?
Or is it only the select few who get anointed to committees who get to have a voice?
Most committees no longer have a real voice either. Early in Hinchey’s tenure, staff took control of committee member selections. Committees have since made decisions under their OPs manual authority, only to have staff ignore them—and later blame volunteers for the problems created by staff’s disregard.
From my perspective
Getting involved means: We show up, before sunrise and long after others clock out.We pay our dues BOTH literally and figuratively. We build the culture, nurture relationships, and shoulder the emotional load of every swimmer, win or lose.
As coaches, we DIRECTLY communicate with kids, parents, boards, officials, and yes, even governing bodies which there is plenty of opportunity for us to do so.
We deal with the experts on the sidelines whose socks are dry. We deal with the experts who skip warm-ups, drop buzzwords, and disappear when the real work begins.
We directly work with governance and we get involved when we see we can make a positive difference.
I encourage you to not… Read more »
Why are swimming people so good at talking without saying anything?
Much bloviating, little good direction. I agree with Swimswam. Even if Ira or Clark are fighting the good fight, they are apparently not effective. So vote them out. It’s unlikely to get worse.
That’s a great point. The only way to get worse at this point is for the whole thing to completely collapse and have to be reformed under a new NGB, which I would argue is not worse.
There’s only upside to voting for the “change” group.
The ironic part is both of those incumbents were in trouble the last go-around for campaigning….
USA Swimming Board Members Accused of “Overt Campaigning,” Settlement Reached
Difficult to understand how you make yourself known to the voting public if you don’t campaign. Difficult to understand what the board candidates are standing for other than their abbreviated resume and a platitude from the central directorate of USAs nom com.
Why accept this level of opacity.
If you all agree that USAs mgmt are right to silence possible critical points of view and have closed silent board elections, well then let’s just shut up about the state of the board and the lack of management and accept our fate as directed to us by the apparatchiks of whomever is making these decisions.
I find it hilarious that USA Swimming has a “no campaigning” rule. I’m sure, like all of their administrative rules, it is applied completely equally to all candidates, and no one in Colorado Springs ever lets personal biases define what is “campaigning” and what isn’t.