USA Swimming is undergoing a major overhaul.
Following a lackluster Olympic run in 2024, USA Swimming is making big changes, which includes the departure of the team’s CEO Tim Hinchey and national team managing director Lindsay Mintenko, according to Sports Illustrated.
The changes come after a Summer Olympics in which Team USA still managed to out-medal everyone else in swimming, accumulating 28.
The medal count was led by eight golds, also more than their opposition, but it was the fewest amount of golds U.S. Swimming has had since 1988 and their lowest tally of total medals since 2004.
This, despite their being three more swimming events now than in those Olympics.
Caeleb Dressel, after winning five golds in Tokyo, won two relay golds in Paris but flopped in his individual events, finishing sixth in the 50-meter freestyle final and failing to make the final in the 100-meter butterfly.
Ryan Murphy also failed to qualify for the finals of the 200-meter backstroke.
It’s worth noting that Team USA Swimming also flopped — by its own standards — in the 2023 World Championships, in which Americans got seven total — six fewer than Australia, which led the gold medal count with 13.
Regarding Mintenko specifically, Sports Illustrated notes that her “lack of coaching experience and overall leadership skills” were seen as negatives by many in USA Swimming.
Mintenko was promoted in October of 2017 as the managing director for the national team amid a staff restructuring.
Hinchey had been the CEO since 2017 and was up for a possible extension in 2025.
