By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
USA Swimming entered 2026 budgeting for a deficit of more than $5 million, but officials say that strong partnership revenue growth has already reduced the forecasted deficit by more than half.
The national governing body’s budget showed an expected operational deficit of $5.19 million and a net deficit of $3.63 million (factoring in more than $2.2 million in investment gains) for 2026, which was primarily due to increased spending in a couple of key areas.
However, despite the expected deficit, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Cory Hilliard said that “strong partnership revenue growth” has reduced the projected deficit to just under $2.6 million, according to the minutes from USA Swimming’s Board of Directors Meeting on April 17. Hilliard also described the budgeted deficit as being closer to $5.5 million, meaning the partnership revenue growth has “represented a favorable variance of approximately $2.9 million.”
The January budget showed that partnership revenue was budgeted for an increase of $1.2 million from 2025, and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jake Grosser said revenue is ahead of both the 2025 projection and the 2026 budget during the April meeting.
USA Swimming’s planned increase in spending comes primarily from the National Team, event operations, and technology.
Increases In Spending:
USA Swimming has budgeted for $11.36 million on the National Team, an increase from the 2025 projection of $10.04 million. There’s been an increase in athlete visits and athlete and coach engagement, according to the April meeting, along with increased planning with the Pan Pac team being selected early. While the National Team has seen an increase in spending, Sport Development has been slightly decreased. Read more on that here. USA Swimming also budgeted for a massive increase of more than $3 million in event operations, up from a projected $4.85 million in 2025 to $7.88 million in 2026. That increase is primarily due to USA Swimming hosting the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine and adding a Short Course World Championships selection meet to its schedule for this fall in Westmont. Technology was budgeted for a significant increase of roughly $2.4 million, from a 2025 projection of $2.875 million up to $5.275 million budgeted for 2026. Part of this is due to the upcoming launch of the USA Swimming mobile app on June 15, along with improvements to the data hub, customer satisfaction tracking and the pending implementation of a race analytics platform.Regarding the technology increase, during the April meeting Hilliard reported that the organization will seek “more strategic investment in technology services” and that “future reports will further differentiate technology overhead from member-facing technology services to provide clearer financial visibility” due to the significant increase in spending.
Operating in a deficit in the non-Olympic, non-World Championship gap year is certainly expected, and of course, hosting the Pan Pacific Championships results in a big increase in spending. In the last “gap year” that didn’t feature the Olympics or World Championships in 2018, USA Swimming operated at a $1.45 million deficit. Its biggest deficit over the last two quads came in 2022, planned to be the gap year between Olympics and Worlds before the COVID postponement, which saw the national governing body operate at a $1.28 million deficit.
In terms of membership revenue, USA Swimming has budgeted for $23.98 million in 2026, a slight downturn from the $24.08 million in projected revenue from 2025. During the Board meeting, Joel Shinofield, the Managing Director of Sport Development, said that Flex and seasonal memberships are increasing while premium youth memberships are lower than prior levels.
2025 Projection vs 2026 Budget
Note that this doesn’t factor in what was said during the meeting, as the budget was published in January.
Category 2025 Projection 2026 Budget Operating Revenue Membership $24.08M $23.98M Partnership Marketing $4.03M $5.22M USOPC Partnership $5.33M $5.14M Foundation $1.77M $1.81M Sport & Events $1.36M $1.59M Other Income $0.39M $0.36M Investment Income $0.55M $0.81M Short-Term Interest $0.05M $0.03M Total Revenue $37.57M $38.94M Operating Expenses National Team $10.04M $11.36M Sport Development $6.89M $6.53M Event Operations $4.85M $7.88M Total Technical/Sport $21.78M $25.77M Commercial $4.23M $4.07M Risk Management/Insurance $3.91M $4.05M Foundation Support $0.30M $0.30M Total Other Programs $8.44M $8.42M Executive $0.77M $1.68M Finance & Operations $1.70M $1.16M Business Affairs $1.44M $1.83M Technology $2.88M $5.28M Total Support Divisions $6.78M $9.94M Total Expenses $37.01M $44.13M Operating Surplus (Deficit) $0.56M ($5.19M)You can find the full 2026 budget here.
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