Club Excellence Program Overview

The Club Excellence program is one of USA Swimming’s more popular programs. It is a voluntary program that identifies and recognizes the top 200 clubs for their commitment to performance excellence. The program started in 2002 and is in its 19^th year. Clubs may qualify for one of three levels of recognition:

• Gold: The top 20 scoring teams are recognized as Gold-level teams. At least one 18-and-Under athlete from the club must achieve a Gold time standard (equal to approximately 150^th place World Ranking for Women and 200^th place World Ranking for Men).
• Silver: Clubs not achieving Gold status through #100. At least one 18-and-Under athlete must achieve the Silver time standard (generally equals the USA Swimming Summer Nationals time standards).
• Bronze: Clubs ranked #101 through #200 and/or not achieving Gold or Silver status. At least one 18-and-Under athlete must achieve the Bronze time standard (equals the USA Swimming LCM Summer Junior National time standard).
• Podium Club: For the last five years, any club achieving the Gold Medal level for a 4^th consecutive year earned additional recognition by being named to the Podium Club.

Observations over the life of the program

• Over $6,700,000 have been awarded in grants (includes approximate disbursement amount for the 2020 grants, which have not been awarded yet),
• 551 teams have participated.

Teams that have participated and been ranked in all 19 years of the program:

• Dynamo Swim Club
• Marlins of Raleigh
• Mission Viejo Nadadores
• Nashville Aquatic Club
• Nation’s Capital Swim Club
• North Baltimore Aquatic Club
• Pleasanton Seahawks
• Santa Clara Swim Club
• SwimAtlanta

Gold Teams:

• 86 different teams have received the Gold ranking.
• Longest consecutive Gold status is North Baltimore Aquatic Club from 2002-2016.
• The top Gold medal teams over the life of the program (right-hand column indicates number of years ranked Gold):

 

Nation's Capital Swim Club	Mclean	VA	17
SwimAtlanta	Lawrenceville	GA	17
North Baltimore Aquatic Club	Baltimore	MD	16
SwimMAC Carolina	Charlotte	NC	15
Dynamo Swim Club	Atlanta	GA	14
Lakeside Swim Team	Louisville	KY	14
Mission Viejo Nadadores	Mission Viejo	CA	14

• 11 teams have been ranked Gold for at least nine years.
• 13 teams have received more than $100,000 in grant money over the life of the program.

Silver Teams:

• 32 teams have received the Silver ranking at least ten or more times.
• Over the life of the program, 346 teams have received the Silver ranking.

Bronze Teams:

• Over the life of the program, 481 teams have received the Bronze ranking.

Podium Club:

• 11 teams have been given Podium Club status in the five years of the recognition.
• Nation’s Capital Swim Club has received Podium Club recognition all five years.
• Carmel Swim Club and Sarasota Sharks each have received it three years.

LSCs that have had the most participating teams:

• 30 Southern California
• 27 Illinois
• 24 Florida
• 22 Indiana & Southeastern
• 21 Ohio & Pacific
• 20 Colorado

Observations from the 2020 Club Excellence Program

Size of Teams for the 2020 Program

   Average Size:    

• Overall: 368 athletes
• Gold: 592 athletes
• Silver: 402 athletes
• Bronze: 296 athletes

Size of teams/# of Athletes

Highest-ranked team under 200 athletes is Bluefish Swim Club (Attleboro, Mass.), ranked 11^th in Gold.

Highest ranked team under 100 athletes is Crow Canyon Sharks (Danville, CA) ranked 14^th in Silver.

This is the first year being ranked in the Club Excellence program for the following teams:

Gold:

• 9 of the Gold teams have been ranked Gold for at least 9 years.
• 10 of the Gold teams have participated in the program since its inception in 2002.
• Two new teams were new to the Gold Ranking this year: Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club & TAC Titans.
• Of the Gold teams, 16 of them would have been eligible to participate in this past December’s Junior East meet with four eligible to participate in the Junior’s West meet (in 2019: 12 would have been eligible for Juniors East and 8 for Juniors West, and in 2018: it was even with 10 for East and 10 for West).
• It took approximately 20 swims to qualify for Gold status.

Silver

• For 17 teams this is their first time being ranked as Silver.
• It took approximately 7 swims to qualify for Silver status.

Bronze

• For 17 teams this is their first time being ranked as Bronze.
• It took approximately four swims to qualify for Bronze status.

To learn more about USA Swimming Club Excellence Program and how your team can move up the rankings please reach out to our Program Development Managers and build a comprehensive approach towards your 2020 Summer/Fall season.