Raising the profile of the USA Swimming National Team

Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, Aug 1999 by Wielgus, Chuck

USA Swimming has adopted three core objectives:

Build our Base

Promote our Sport

Achieve Competitive Success

Critical to the accomplishment of each of these objectives is the success of the U.S. National Team program-i.e., the higher the public profile of our national team, the greater our chances will be in fulfilling these core objectives.

Put simply, if our national team is successful and has high public visibility, this enhances the promotion of swimming and, in turn, establishes greater opportunities to build our base by attracting new athletes into the sport.

Americans love to root for teams...especially successful teams. The United States has been the No. 1ranked swimming nation in the world for more than 40 years, yet our sport simply doesn't get the recognition it deserves. American sports fans should look at USA Swimming in the same way that they revere the extraordinary history of the Green Bay Packers, New York Yankees and Boston Celtics. We need to raise the public profile of the USA Swimming National Team!

Part of the problem is that the media spotlight only shines on swimming once every four years at the Olympic Games. We have started to take some key steps to increase media coverage for swimming by:

converting Splash to a full-color in-house magazine;

continually upgrading our web site;

having NBC Sports broadcast our national championships; and

bringing an annual American stop to the FINA World Cup seriesand getting the event broadcast on ESPN.

However, these should only be viewed as first steps in a long-term strategy to market and promote swimming better. As we work to build off these preliminary steps and advance our marketing initiatives to the next level, we must now focus significant attention on raising the public profile of the USA Swimming National Team. There are multiple elements to this next phase, including the following key components:

National Team Logo. The USA Swimming "teardrop" logo is our corporate logo and, as such, we use it in much the same way that the NFL and the NBA use their league logos. In other words, we should be using it in association with virtually everything we do, including use by all our member clubs.

What we're missing, however, is a distinctive logo that is consistently used to distinguish the national team. For this reason, we have recently developed a new logo that will, henceforth, be used exclusively for the USA Swimming National Team. The team will unveil the logo this summer at the Pan Pacific Championships. This logo will remain a permanent part of the national team identity.

Television. We must continue to put more events on television. Between August and December of this year, we will have five events televised. In addition to the national championships that will be broadcast on NBC on Aug. 15, the following events will be featured on ESPN: Pan Pacific Championships, U.S. Olympic Cup, FINA World Cup and the U.S. Open. In looking past 1999, we have already arranged for NBC to broadcast the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 2000, and we are hopeful that we can continue to package events for ESPN in 2000 and beyond.

Dual Meets. The 1998 Goodwill Games showed us how attractive dual meet competition can be for fans, television and sponsors. We think it is extremely important that we establish an annual schedule of dual meet competitions that feature the USA Swimming National Team. With increasing numbers of post-collegiate athletes staying in the sport, we believe that the timing is right to begin planning dual meets that will give these athletes opportunities to compete as a team. We are working now to schedule dual meets beginning in 2001, and we hope to make such events an important part of the annual competition calendar.

Why Be Dry Club. We have recently launched the Why Be Dry Club as a means to attract more attention on the national team and our top athletes. The Why Be Dry Club is more than a fan club. It is an opportunity for people who are interested in swimming-but who might not have a reason to join USA Swimming-to become a member of an association that will provide them with a relationship with the national team program. Call 1-877-949-2379 toll-free for details.

American swimming has an incredible history. As we prepare to lead our sport into the next millennium, we cannot be afraid to step out and find new ways to market and promote swimming. Age group, high school and collegiate swimming will continue to establish the foundation that is so critical to our continued growth and success, but the time has come to find new ways to raise the public profile of the U.S. National Team program. I believe the steps we are now taking will put us on the right path.

-By Chuck Wielgus,

USA Swimming Executive Director

U.S. Swimming National Headquarters, 1 Olympic Plaza Colorado Springs, CO 80909; 719-578-4578; http://www.usswim.org

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