By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
In more news coming out of the SwimSwam Podcast with Kevin Ring, he told SwimSwam that, beginning in January of 2026, the USA Swimming APA will be increasing their professional athlete support by 15%.
About 10 minutes into the podcast, SwimSwam Editor-in-Chief Braden Keith asked Ring about the approximately 20-25% increase in USA Swimming executive salaries over the last 15 years while the APA value has not risen at all since its introduction in 2010, and if he could commit to raising that support.
Ring pointed to the fact that salary is always a hot topic in these conversations, and that his salary will be judged based on his effectiveness in his role as CEO.
He went on to say that USA Swimming has “already committed to raising APA by 15% starting in January [2026] for professional athletes. That was something that we talked about openly and Greg [Meehan] advocated right away for it.”
This will be the first increase in professional athlete support since the inception of the Athlete Partnership Agreement in 2010. At this time, only the professional athlete support is increasing while the NCAA and high school numbers, if there are any athletes in these categories in the APA, will stay the same.
USA Swimming also confirmed recently that, while the amount of support has not gone up, the number of athletes included in the Agreement has increased. The most recent funding period, from September to December 2025 saw the 30 athletes of each gender receive funding.
This is an increase of four each gender, eight athletes total, from the January-June 2021 funding period, which had 52 athletes receive funding.
We don’t have the exact numbers for the current athlete support, but according to the USA Swimming Form 990, in 2024 the organization spent just over $4 million on “Medal Money, Athlete Stipends, and Record Bonuses” for 75 different individuals.
Ring continued to discuss the ways that USA Swimming wants to support athletes moving forward to allow them to make a career out of swimming. He said, “what we really start focusing on is, not just the APA, but what can we do to really support the athletes even further because APA is one aspect of support, but what else would we be doing to make sure they all get what they need to allow them to continue to swim and perform at the highest level.”
He also said “My hope and my desire and my plan is that the 15% is going to be a starting point. That between now and 2028 we want to continue to grow that for the professional athletes.”
This conversation is coming at a time when athletes are beginning to speak out about their struggles supporting their families and trying to live on the money they make as a swimmer. Some athletes have even begun turning to alternative sources of revenue, like the Enhanced Games, in order to increase their income.
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