By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
USA Swimming has announced the addition of an 800 yard medley relay and 5,000 yard pool swim to all future LSC, sectional, and national championship meets, with the intention of advocating for its addition at major international meets as well, a member of the Board of Directors told SwimSwam on Tuesday. They asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
The board member said that the thought process was that the addition of more races would allow for longer meets, which in turn would mean increased revenue from more entries and advertising (longer races mean longer television blocks).
“With the latest membership numbers, USA Swimming conducted a survey of its most experienced coaches, those who have been on deck since at least the 1990s,” the source said. “They almost unanimously agreed that the sport’s biggest issue today is a generation of kids who just don’t know how to work as hard as they did in the past. They don’t like the work. So we’re going to do our part to teach this generation how to work. That’s the only way we can save this sport.”
The source said that the inspiration came after he attended a talk at a local university on “generational change” and became motivated to change the generation.
The rollout will begin in 2026 and is expected to allow USA Swimming to add another full day of competition to all of its upcoming championship events.
“We think that expanding meets to be longer, especially national meets, can create more ticket revenue, more hotel revenue for our host city partners, and generally more interest and buzz around the sport,” the source continued. “But the real secret is that we think that this will deepen the immersion in the sport. If we can give our athletes and coaches the ability to spend an extra day at swim meets, it can further help prevent them from being distracted by the allure of other sports or healthy relationships outside of swimming.”
“Swimming will become their only choice.”
The new direction will include a new hire: the organization, which is currently without a CEO or National Team Director, is creating a new C-suite position termed the “Chief Innovation Officer” or “CIO.” This person will be tasked with rolling out the new events. In an even more surprising move, rumors are that USA Swimming is eyeing famed gymnastics coach Marta Karolyi for the role, saying that her transformational work with United States gymnastics and sterling, well-vetted reputation made her a perfect choice for the job.
They also felt it fit well with USA Swimming’s DEI initiatives, part of a broader move toward hiring more diverse leaders in organizations like USA Swimming.
When asked whether they foresaw the events being added at the international level, the source said “We hope so. The United States are the hosts of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which means that we can do whatever we want with those Games, and we intend to add these events if our initial testing goes well.”
The addition of another relay will likely lead to 16 more medal winners on the American tally, which could be an added marketing benefit.
Other proposed ideas that the board is discussing to revolutionize the sport include adding maximum entry times, to ensure that swimmers don’t go too fast prior to championship meets, and the creation of a series of competitions that will bring swimmers from different colleges together for intercollegiate meets under the umbrella of “#smartestsport,” akin to the NCAA movement that has taken hold in track and field. To this point, USA Swimming has preferred to not get involved in college swimming, pointing to the fact that short course yards competition doesn’t adequately prepare athletes for the long course Olympic Games.
USA Swimming has reportedly signed an agreement with Sherwin Williams to support the rollout of the new events.
“The selling point was that watching a 5,000 yard pool swim is akin to ‘watching paint dry,’ and we just really liked that analogy,” said Sherwin-Williams CEO Benjamin Moore.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: USA Swimming Adds New Events to Local, National Championships; Will Push for Olympic Inclusion
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