Splashing Into the Future: USA Swimming Unveils 2025 Budget Insights

USA Swimming has revealed its budget for the year 2025, which received approval from the Board of Directors during their meeting on December 19. The budget “aims at the optimum allocation of resources to enhance our programming while restricting the operational shortfall,” according to the governing body. Since 2019, USA Swimming’s salaries have increased by 100%, while the organization was under budget in 2024.

The organization has announced a balanced budget for 2025, with $39.7 million in income and $39.6 million in operational costs. A significant alteration to this year’s budget is the transfer of revenue and expenditure for the Golden Goggle Awards from USA Swimming’s financial records to that of the Foundation.

The Olympic Impact

The year 2024 was an Olympic year, leading to substantial modifications in last year’s budget for USA Swimming. The National Team support costs reflected this influence the most. As an illustration, the organization allocated approximately $1.8 million towards pre-Olympic staging camps, a line item absent in the budget for 2025. Naturally, funds will still be directed towards national team international camps, but the $450,000 allocation for those camps is considerably reduced for the coming year.

In total, the budget for National Team support expenses has diminished by 15% compared to last year. However, with many excluded items having been directly cut from the budget, other areas such as support for the Junior Team, Open Water, and coaches have risen this year. National Team support constitutes 26% of USA Swimming’s overall operational expenses in 2025, representing the bulk of the organization’s costs for the year.

The absence of an Olympic Games this year has affected various types of expenses for USA Swimming, encompassing commercial and executive costs. Commercial expenditures have decreased by 6% from 2024, attributed to the “lack of Olympic-related programming.” This change is evident in budget line items like the USA Swimming House and Aqua Zone at Olympic Trials—which USA Swimming estimates it spent $235,000 and $1,190,367 on—not being included in the budget for 2025.

Comparison to 2022, Another Post-Olympic Year

Although the budget for National Team support has declined from last year, USA Swimming indicates that its budget for this kind of support has risen by 22% compared to 2022, the last post-Olympic year. In several aspects, the 2022 budget serves as a more relevant benchmark for this budget than the 2024 Olympic year expenditure.

While commercial costs, including marketing and partnerships, remain similar to those of 2022, executive expenditures have been reduced by 16%. Certain line item budgets for the Executive portion of the budget have increased relative to the actual year-end figures of 2022, such as travel expenses for the Board of Directors and Board Chair. Nevertheless, there has been a decrease in the budget for International Organizational Relations and Board Governance Consultant. In 2022, USA Swimming spent $25,314 on International Organizational Relations, and the current budget for this year is merely $2,500. More strikingly, there is no budget allocated for the Board Governance Consultant in 2025, despite incurring expenses of $149,864 in 2022.

Sport Development

While National Team support stands as USA Swimming’s largest financial commitment at 26% of the expenses budget, Sport Development follows closely at 25%. This category encompasses items like LSC support, SafeSport initiatives, DEI programs, and support for athletes, coaches, and clubs. This segment has experienced a 7% increase in funding from last year, which USA Swimming attributes to heightened financial support for the National and Zone Select Camps, complemented by “expanded club and coach development assistance, greater SafeSport programming, and enhanced DEI support.”

A lack of engagement with coaches emerged as a key concern in ASCA’s correspondence to the USA Swimming Board in August. The decline in membership was another issue highlighted. USA Swimming anticipates a 3% growth in membership in 2025, driven by 40 new clubs and 9,970 new members, even with a static membership fee. The $2 increase in the annual premium membership rate was revoked by the House of Delegates.

The board projected an expenditure of $1,000 for the National Select Camps, while for this year, USA Swimming has earmarked $150,000 for these camps. Notably, there was no National Select Camp conducted in the 2024 calendar year—the 2023 camp occurred in October of that year, and the 2024 camp is scheduled for this month. Additionally, the board foresaw spending $55,628 on Zone Select Camps in 2024 but has allocated $80,000 for them this year.

The Quest for a New CEO

Shana Ferguson has acted as the interim CEO of USA Swimming since the departure of Tim Hinchey at the end of August. The 2025 budget reflects the ongoing pursuit for a new leader, as $415,800 of the non-operating budget has been designated for “costs associated with CEO transition.”

In 2021, Hinchey earned over $1 million, comprising 2.8% of USA Swimming’s expenses and ranking second highest for a CEO of a prominent sports governing body in the United States. Salaries and benefits for USA Swimming are listed separately under the administration segment of the budget, not itemized by position.

Furthermore, within the non-operating budget, USA Swimming has set aside $100,000 for Race Analysis, an increase from $0 last year. The “Keeping Athletes First 2.0 Initiative” has also received a significant boost in funding, rising from a projected $584,818 in 2024 to a budget of $990,110 for 2025.