Though USA Swimming has said it will take some time before new CEO Tim Hinchey is ready to give media interviews, he did deliver the State of the Sport address at U.S. Aquatic Sports’ convention last week.
USA Swimming published an overview of Hinchey’s address, which you can read in full here. We’ll run through some of the high points below:
100-Day Listening Tour
Hinchey is taking a 100-day tour to meet with “sponsors, FINA representatives, board members and other key influencers” to learn more about how USA Swimming is currently running. He’s also working to get to know all of USA Swimming’s full-time staff.
Build-Promote-Achieve to Continue
Hinchey plans to carry on the philosophy of Build-Promote-Achieve, which focuses on building USA Swimming membership, promoting the sport through various media and achieving high-level success with USA Swimming’s national teams.
Increased Accessibility
USA Swimming’s write-up says Hinchey “spoke to being more accessible to members” through USA Swimming member services. That ties in with USA Swimming’s new addition of the flex membership category, which allows swimmers to join USA Swimming in the short term to plug into the sport without immediately committing to a full-year membership.
‘Trialized’ Events
Hinchey talked about a plan to “trialize” events, which appears to be a reference to the spectator-engaging nature of Olympic Trials. Hinchey says the Trialized events will “entice fans,” and said he plans to work with the business development side of the federation to build up the commercial aspect of major swimming events. Hinchey specifically pointed to additional digital content and unique partnerships as ways to broaden the commercial appeal of the sport.
Hinchey just took over as CEO of the organization in May, following Chuck Wielgus, who served for 19 years before passing away earlier this year. We talked to Hinchey about a range of topics when he was first named CEO, and you can read that piece here.