USA Swimming has been drowning ever since Michael Phelps retired.

USA Swimming was once head and shoulders ahead of any other country on the world stage in swimming, but they have been dominant ever since the beginning of world competitions. However, in the last ten years, the quality of USA swimming has been falling compared to other countries.

In the early 2000s to 2010s, the United States dominated other countries in World Championships and Olympic Games. They would consistently have many more medals than any other country in those international events.

In the London 2012 Olympic Games, USA Swimming more than tripled the count of second-place finishers with 31 medals (16 gold), while China scored 10 total (5 gold).

However, in the 2024 World Championships in Doha, they only won 23 medals (8 gold). A major reason the United States dominated during this time period is partly because of Michael Phelps.

Phelps was huge for the USA in so many ways; he was a leader both in and out of the pool. He was also a motivation for the professional swimmers in America, but the youth of American swimming were motivated even more than the professional swimmers because there was a distinct rise in the quality of youth swimming during the years that Michael Phelps swam for the USA.

Ever since he retired in 2016 after the Rio Olympic Games, though, American swimmers in general have lost a little bit of motivation to push themselves to get better. Other swimmers have come along, like Katie Ledecky or Caeleb Dressel, whom people really latch on to and look up to to motivate them to get better.

The USA has won every major swimming competition, but since Michael Phelps retired, the team has lacked identity and consistency. Especially in men’s swimming, more and more swimmers lose interest in swimming in general because of the disorganization in the USA swimming organization.

USA Swimming has just hired a new CEO after not having one for over a year. Although the new CEO has never swam competitively, he has a strong background in sports marketing and commercial partnerships.

Emmitt Smith, the head swim coach at Saint Paul’s, has some concerns about the new CEO. “I think it will be tough to get competitive American swimmers to give support to the new CEO when he’s never swam competitively before in his life,” said Coach Smith.

Another reason that USA Swimming has been sinking is that people don’t naturally take an interest in swimming, and that affects the revenue from viewers for large swim meets or events. This affects how much money companies want to pay their sponsored swimmers, which makes it more difficult to train full-time as a competitive swimmer because they would have to support themselves financially instead of training.

While this hasn’t happened to many people yet, many experts in the field of swimming have hinted that companies might cut more swimmers’ contracts due to a lack of revenue. Another factor that affects revenue is that people aren’t buying athlete-specific merchandise, which companies profit from when these items are sold. This is because pro swimmers get very little to no media coverage outside of the Olympics, if they even make it that far. This also means that only very well-known swimmers can secure strong brand deals because it will draw more attention to them than to a less well-known person wearing it.

Another problem is that foreign swimmers are coming to America to train with prestigious college programs with elite coaches to take their talents to the next level.

An example of this is the French Superstar, Leon Marchand, going to train at Arizona State under the supervision of Bob Bowman, who is now regarded as the best coach in the world. While this helps get college programs to compete at a higher level, the problem with this is that college programs only have a small number of spots on their swim team for incoming recruits to take up. As a result of foreign athletes coming in, elite college swim teams are made up of about half foreign swimmers.

Because of foreign swimmers taking up so much space on college rosters, American swimmers are forced to choose schools that aren’t the top schools and don’t have the resources to develop elite talent.

Saint Paul’s sophomore, Jake Bergeron, thinks that there could be a solution for the lower schools to be able to develop talent better. “I think that college swim teams should be given more resources to recruit swimmers and keep more on the roster,” said Bergeron.

Many respected voices in USA Swimming have voiced their opinions on the status of USA Swimming. Ryan Lochte posted an image on “X” with people standing around a gravestone with the name USA Swimming and a sentence under the name saying “They set the bar high until they stopped reaching for it.”

Rowdy Gaines, a respected expert and commentator in the field of swimming, believes that the competition is getting better.

”The competition is getting sharper. Hungrier. That’s not a bad thing–it’s a reality check. And the sooner that we accept that, the sooner we start climbing again,” Gaines said on “X”.

Michael Phelps has said on Instagram that he considered not letting his sons swim on the competitive level. This is because of the disorganization of the executive board and the whole organization in general.

This sends a signal to parents of young swimmers that if the most decorated swimmer of all time has trust issues with the organization when they are investing so much time, money, and energy, they might want to reconsider having their children swim competitively in USA Swimming.

He is also a very big mental health activist, so this could also imply that he believes that there isn’t a good system for treatment for mental health in USA Swimming.

While you may see athletes on TV when you are watching football or baseball performing at the top of their game, they may be struggling with mental health problems while they try to achieve perfection. When you don’t have a stable system to help with mental health, it makes it really hard for athletes to succeed and have motivation.

Many people, like Phelps, have said that USA Swimming leadership has been weak, so they need to regain the trust of the people who agree with Phelps before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Also, having more learn-to-swim events and encouraging more of the youth to try club swimming can increase quality by increasing quantity. And finally, giving swimmers career stability beyond that of college swimming, like a pro swim league, where swimmers could sign contracts with teams to provide them with financial stability, and could also generate more revenue for the sport.

Rowdy Gaines may be right: the rest of the world is hungrier than ever, and the United States has lost some of its edge. But if USA Swimming can take this reality check seriously by investing in its athletes, rebuilding leadership, and finding ways to inspire the next generation, there’s no reason America can’t rise back to its former glory.

Feature image photo credit: Matthias Schrader