USA Swimming Forms 9-Member Task Force to Find New National Team Director

USA Swimming’s Board of Directors has approved a nine member National Team Director Task Force to guide the selection of the new USA Swimming National Team Director.

• See SwimSwam’s list of qualified candidates for the role.

While it is unlikely that any choice on a National Team Director will be made before the hiring of a new CEO (which has its own search committee) the committee will begin compiling top candidates.

National Team Director Task Force

• Katie Meili (10-Year Athlete)
• Melanie Margalis Fink (10-Year Athlete)
• Matt Grevers (10-Year Athlete)
• Kathleen Prindle (Coach member of the Board)
• Ira Klein (Coach member of the Board)
• Dave Durden (Former Olympic Coach and current National Team Coach)
• Jack Roach (Former USA Swimming National Junior Team Director)
• Chris Plumb (Former Olympic Coach and current National Team Coach)
• Shana Ferguson (Interim Chief Executive Officer and current Chief Operating Officer)

Among the nine individuals on the committee, three are “10-year athletes,” meaning athletes that have represented the U.S. at elite international competitions in the last decade. That includes Katie Meili, who won gold and bronze at the 2016 Olympics; Melanie Margalis, who won gold at the 2016 Olympics; and two-time Olympian Matt Grevers, who has six Olympic medals and 28 World Championship medals in his decorated career.

There are also six coaches, including Dave Durden, the current head coach for the 8-time NCAA Champion men’s team at Cal; former Junior National Team Director Jack Roach; and Chris Plumb, the head coach of one of the most-successful club programs in the country at the Carmel Swim Club.

Kathleen Prindle and Ira Klein are the two coach members of the USA Swimming Board of Directors.

Margalis has one foot in each bucket – she is currently an assistant coach with the women’s program at SMU.

The only individual on the task force who is best-known for their work off-deck is USA Swimming’s interim CEO Shana Ferguson. Ferguson swam collegiately at the U.S. Naval Academy and had a long career that eventually led to her being named the Head of Marketing for Under Armour in Canada in 2015.

She joined USA Swimming in 2019 at the Chief Commercial Officer and in July, she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer by Tim Hinchey shortly before he left the organization.

She is now serving as the interim CEO for the organization while it looks for a permanent replacement for Hinchey.

The last National Team Managing Director Lindsay Mintenko announced her resignation from the post in September, with her last day being September 20th. Her role had differed from prior National Team Directors. She was more focused on the administrative side of the organization, while her recent predecessors served as basically a nation-wide head coaching role that is employed in many other sports.

This drew criticism from stakeholders after disappointing results for the American teams at both the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympic Games, though the U.S. still won the most gold medals at the latter. The new hire for the role is expected to swing the position back to more of a coaching role.