After criticism from the country’s largest coaches organization, USA Swimming has released an updated Coach Selection Framework that will guide its coaching selection for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships this summer in Singapore.
This selection framework is new for World Aquatics Championships, where USA Swimming has historically utilized an internal selection framework (versus the Olympic Games, where they had to produce a written framework). The new framework also brings more of the requested transparency to the selection process after the American Swimming Coaches’ Association (ASCA) wrote a public letter requesting it late last year.
Among the subjective criteria that are listed as being part of the selection:
- Positive feedback regarding the Available Coach from athletes, coaches, and staff from prior international trips
- An Available Coach’s proven ability to establish harmonious and respectful relationships with athletes, other coaches, and Team personnel
- An Available Coach’s ability to handle high-pressure, stressful situations, and to maintain a composed, professional demeanor
- An Available Coach’s track record in promoting and growing Team culture and creating a collegial but competitive atmosphere for the athletes
The new framework includes an application that has open ended questions allowing coaches to make their case for selection, which can be seen here. This includes questions about their experience and more open-ended questions. Examples:
One interesting question is asking whether a coach has ever coached another international federation at an international swim meet, which for the vast majority of coaches who would be considered for a World Championship staff would be a “yes” answer.
There is also a criteria relating to “conflicts of interest of an Available Coach, including the need to have neutral voices in relay selection,” which seems to apply both to whether coaches have athletes on other teams and to whether coaches have athletes in the running for relay selection.
There will also be a selection committee, which will consist of National Team Steering Committee Chair, two 10-Year Athlete members of the AAC or BOD (as appointed by the AAC), the USA Swimming National Team Managing Director (or designee), and the USA Swimming President & Chief Executive Officer.
USA Swimming did not give a specific timeline for announcing head coaches, which are asked to fill out the application as well; for the 2023 World Championships, they were announced on January 20 of the same year. As is tradition, assistant coaches will be announced on the final day of the selection meet, which will be held June 3-7 in Indianapolis.
USA Swimming acknowledges that the choices will continue to be made with the same combination of subjective and objective criteria that prior staffs were made of, but that they hope that publishing the selection document will bring more transparency to the process.
While none of the official press releases from USA Swimming or ASCA have acknowledged any specific selections that were viewed as problematic, the coaching community broadly raised eyebrows when Ray Looze was not chosen for the U.S. staff at the Olympic Games in spite of qualifying four swimmers for the team.
USA Swimming said in a response to the letter that they had already been working on changes to the selection processes with internal coach and athlete-led committees.
The new criteria has been signed by Interim President & CEO Shana Ferguson, National Team Managing Director Matt Barbini, and USA Swimming Athletes’ Advisory Council Chair Caitlin Leverenz Smith; it is not signed by a representative from the Coaches’ Advisory Committee.
Criteria for other upcoming meets like the World Junior Championships and World University Games are expected soon.
Politics as usual
Did anyone read the criteria, which ostensibly was created after Ray was left off the staff, and think that the criteria would prevent Ray from being a part of the staff? I read a comment last fall that Covid mellowed out Ray and that he is a different person. Maybe that’s true, and I honestly hope it is, but the Ray I’ve dealt with over the years wouldn’t meet the criteria of getting along with others.
Reading a comment below, I am surprised that the staff wasn’t as harmonious as expected. Isn’t that the rationale for keeping Ray off the staff. I feel like if that is true, someone owes Ray an apology. I had no problem with the… Read more »
You’re NEVER gonna find ONE person to make everyone happy. In layman’s terms, there are a lot of ways to skin a cat and here in the USA, we have a very diverse philosophies among coaches and programs that are producing on both the club and college levels. There is no “one size fits all” model and we must accept and embrace that fact. Finding a coach or a staff is the real challenge.
so did all the us coaches have beef w each other in paris that we dont know about?
during a panel at the eastern states clinic last fall bob said one of the reasons the us failed at the olympics was bc the coaching staff didnt work well together (and didnt want to work w him)… interestingly carol who on that staff was part of the same panel and cosigned him saying it was different than she expected (in an unfavorable sense)…
Athlete feedback should play an important role in the process.
You’d think right
I want more transparency on prelim relay selections.
The USA staff was more interested in individual medal records for their athletes than they were in what was best for the team.
I will say what they did was perhaps the most “fair” when it comes to medals but that’s not their job.
No excuses for USA relays that should win gold not making it out of prelims. Every coach was responsible for that abomination.
You can say you want the selection to be better, but asking for more transparency is like asking a basketball coach to explain why he picked a certain starting lineup.
I think swimming is a little more black and white.
The prelims of the mixed medley ruined Dressel’s Olympics and it was a completely unnecessary swim for Regan Smith on the day of the 200 back final.
The US could have added 3 full seconds and still qualified for the final. Berkoff and Heilman would have been adequate. Even just saving one of them would have been better.
Of course that’s the Olympics and not worlds but the procedures aren’t any different.
Something that’s often overlooked by bystanders is that not everyone’s home coach can be there, and so the coaches who are selected are going to need to coach swimmers other than their own. Not every coach is going to make the effort to do that well, and if there’s a coach who won’t do his or her best by the swimmers temporarily in their care, they shouldn’t have a place on that team. I’ve seen it go wrong (not with USA) and it’s awful for the athletes involved.
As long as Ray Looze isn’t making the relay cards, Todd Desorbo isn’t allowed to coach the men, and Dave Durden doesn’t handle anything taper related, all criteria are fine by me
Go swim some laps to clear your mind andrew, or send the swimcloud