By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Rowdy Gaines, who has been the voice of American swimming for decades, is the latest to speak out about the problems within USA Swimming after the team has struggled through illness and underperformance this week at the World Championships in Singapore.
In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Gaines called the governing body “rudderless” after almost a full year without a full-time CEO (338 days, to be exact).
“Can you imagine any corporation going for a year without a CEO?” Gaines said.
“We’re far from killing it,” Gaines said in a telephone interview from NBC’s studios in Connecticut, where he is calling the meet remotely. “It’s a major struggle and we can’t hide our heads in the sand and say this is just a blip.”
Gaines says that he has been in touch with the U.S. National Team Director Greg Meehan throughout the week, saying that the conversation has been “very positive.” He also says that he thinks that Meehan will make a good National Team Director, but said that he walked into a “landmine” situation.
“I think he’s going to be great,” Gaines said of Meehan. “He’s got that calm reserve. He had great success at Stanford. He’s coached some of the best swimmers ever. I think he’s a good choice; he’s just walking into a bit of a landmine.”
Gaines also critiqued the choice of Thailand for the training camp and the generation of modern athletes.
“You can blame it on the illness, you can blame it on the inexperience — most of these kids have never been in this situation — and you can blame it on logistics,” Gaines said. “Thailand doesn’t make sense to me in the first place.”
“I think in some cases there’s an entitlement for a lot of these kids — they feel like, ‘I should be in the finals of the world championships. And I can still do the peripheral stuff and not worry about making it all the way.'”
“I think there needs to be a more focused attitude on the task at hand,” he added.
Gaines cited the lack of a CEO for USA Swimming as a root cause of the problem.
“I do think changes need to be made, there needs to be a complete reset,” Gaines said. “But I don’t think the sky is falling. But there needs to be some great leadership. Whoever they hire as CEO needs to be the leader that is sorely needed.”
Gaines’ comments come after two of the sport’s most recognizable names, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, criticized the team’s performance on social media this week. Phelps asked if the performance is the “wake up call USA Swimming needed?” in an Instagram story.
While it is rare for Phelps and Lochte to criticize the organization publicly, it is even moreso for Gaines, whose role as NBC’s swimming commentator makes him a surrogate voice for the organization publicly.
More formally, he has long held the official title of ambassador for the organization and in 2020 was named the Director of Community Engagement for USA Swimming – though that role lasted only six months.
Gaines says that he will retire from his role in broadcasting after the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
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