The underperformance of the US swim team at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships has exposed that USA Swimming is declining.

This didn’t happen all of a sudden. Though I believe that the USA’s less-dominant performances were inevitable, it is concerning that the US men have managed no more than three golds per major international championship meet for the last three years. They only won one gold this year.

It got so bad that prominent figures in the sport like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Rowdy Gaines spoke out in criticism of USA Swimming’s leadership at Worlds this summer.

While I believe that the timing of their comments was questionable, I believe they are right to be concerned. 

USA Swimming has not had a CEO for over a year. The last CEO resigned after nine days. The leadership in the organization is lacking, and that needs to be addressed. However, I believe there is a more critical issue at hand: coaches are quitting.

As a swim coach, I understand from firsthand experience why coaches quit. We work long hours for wages that, though they aren’t bad for a college student living with parents, are less than the wages of some jobs that require less time commitment. 

We also do a lot of work outside of our listed hours that goes unpaid. I did about five hours of unpaid work per week this summer. 

The work I did is essential for a swim team to function. Many of my former coaches do more unpaid work than I do. I do the work because I care about the team, and I want every kid to have the opportunity to swim. However, not everyone can (nor should) be manipulated into volunteering at their job, and that’s what many coaches are asked to do. 

For this reason, many teams struggle to keep a consistent, experienced coaching staff. 

On the team I coach, I am the longest “surviving” coach, aside from one who now mainly does administrative work. I am 19 years old. 

When I was swimming, most of the coaches I had were over the age of 25. Only one of those coaches is still working with the team. The average age of the coaches on my team this summer was 19. 

Even my former club team has several coaches who are still students. Many of these coaches will quit for other careers when they finish school. 

Although I love what I do and I care deeply about the families with whom I work, I’ll be doing the same. 

This amount of turnover at the basic level of the sport is terrible for long-term enrollment. If we don’t treat our summer league teams – where nearly every world-class swimmer begins – with the same seriousness as we do our upper-level club groups, the issues we faced at Worlds this year will only get worse. 

The bottom line is that we need to provide better working conditions and wages for coaches at all levels. 

We need a CEO, but we need coaches more. We won’t have a swim team, much less win gold medals, without them.