Women’s History Month, celebrated annually in March, celebrates women and their lasting impact throughout history. In the sport of swimming, countless women have helped pave the way for current National Team stars like Kate Douglass, Katie Ledecky, and Regan Smith.

Driving inclusion starts at the top and with a leadership team consisting of five women and three men, USA Swimming offers a unique perspective within the Olympic movement. Women leaders Paula D’Amico (Executive Administrative Assistant and VIP Hospitality Coordinator), Elaine Calip (Executive Director of the USA Swimming Foundation), Shana Ferguson (Chief Commercial Officer), Lindsay Mintenko (Managing Director, National Team), and Michelle Steinfeld (Secretary and General Counsel), work with their counterparts on the leadership team to innovate, engage membership, and uphold inclusivity throughout the sport. All members of the leadership team bring valuable insight to an Olympic year, but as a two-time Olympic team captain (2000 and 2004), Mintenko offers a one-of-a-kind perspective to her role as the first female senior executive to lead the National Team.

Influential women extend beyond the USA Swimming staff and are particularly visible in volunteer leadership roles on both the USA Swimming and USA Swimming Foundation Board of Directors.

USA Swimming Chair-Elect Natalie Coughlin is the first woman to swim the 100m backstroke in under a minute and win the event in two consecutive Olympic Games. In 2004, Coughlin was part of the relay that smashed the last standing record from the East Germans by over two seconds. Joining Coughlin to take down the 17-year-old record were teammates Carly Piper, Dana Vollmer, and Kaitlin Sandeno. As a 12-time Olympic medalist and member of the Board since 2016, Coughlin’s presence has been invaluable in shaping the future of our sport. Coughlin is in familiar company on the USA Swimming Board, joined by fellow Olympians Maya (Dirado) Andrews and Katie Meili, and current USA Swimming Open Water National Team athlete Ashley Twichell.  

Under the guidance of the Board of Directors, and thanks to support from staff and coaches across the country, USA Swimming has introduced two programs targeted at women coaches. The Women Coaches in Governance Program aims to help support and mentor women coaches looking to become more involved in governance. The Women’s Leadership Summit promotes women coaches and allows them to network and develop their leadership skills on and off the deck.   

From age group coaches to National Team athletes, women leaders encompass all areas of our sport. Currently, 50.1% of the entire coaching membership are women and this past year two National Team women led the 1,135 2022-23 Scholastic All-America athletes with perfect scores: Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein. Grimes went on to become the first American athlete in any sport to claim her spot on the 2024 Paris Olympic Team.

True to the USA Swimming Foundation’s mission of Saving Lives, Building Champions and Impacting Communities, Elizabeth Beisel continues her work as a Foundation Board of Directors member and Ambassador. The two-time Olympian has nine major international medals and was the youngest member of the 2008 Olympic team at 15 years old. She also co-hosts the Kick Set Podcast, which features current and former coaches, athletes, and staff members.

In 1984, current USA Swimming Foundation Ambassador Dara Torres made her debut at the Olympic Games. She qualified for her fifth Olympics in 2008, the most of any swimmer, at 41 years old while being a wife and mother.  Joining Elizabeth and Dara as women Ambassadors are Missy Franklin Johnson and Natalie Hinds. As a first time Olympian (London) as a 17-year-old, Franklin won five medals, four of which were gold. She was also the first woman to earn 11 World Championship titles and was FINA’s Swimmer of the Year in 2011 and 2012.

In 2015, Hinds won bronze alongside Simone Manuel (gold) and Lia Neal (silver) in the 100m freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving National Championships, the first event to have three African American women sweep the podium. The following year, Manuel made history again by becoming the first Black American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming (100m freestyle). Neal was also the first Black woman to swim in a final heat at the Games and the first Black woman to swim in multiple Olympics.

Together with the USA Swimming Foundation, USA Swimming has supported women coaches through its annual Community Impact Grants. These grants provide financial support to teams led by women and/or diverse individuals, facilities or recreational organizations that don’t currently have a team, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities looking to create competitive programs for youth in campus pools. To date, the Community Impact Grant program has sent out $315,000 across 32 clubs.

Leading into the excitement of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, we remember Charlotte Epstein, who worked tirelessly for women to swim competitively by negotiating the recognition of women’s swimming by the American Athletic Union (AAU). In 1920, the AAU allowed women to compete in the Olympic Games. This landmark decision marked the first time female American athletes were permitted to compete in any sport at the Olympic level.

American women did not disappoint at their first Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium– sweeping the three eligible events. The U.S. won gold, silver, and bronze in both individual events (100m and 300m freestyle) and earned gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay. The women were led by Ethelda Bleibtrey, who set three world records during the women’s debut Games. It made her not only the first American woman to win an Olympic event but also the first woman in the world to earn three golds at a single Games in swimming.

Since sweeping those three eligible events, U.S. women have continued their dominance in the sport. The last event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics was a relay, noted as one of the greatest upsets in swimming history. As the U.S. women hadn’t earned a medal in the 100m freestyle event, their chances of beating the East Germans, some of whom were doping, in the 4x100m freestyle relay seemed slim. Against all odds, Shirley Babashoff, Kim Peyton, Jill Sterkel, and Wendy Boglioli beat the East Germans to set the world record by over four seconds. The epic effort was memorialized in the 2016 feature-length film The Last Gold.

After the addition to the 1500m freestyle for women and 800m freestyle for men at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, men and women finally could compete in all events. Distance-free superstar Katie Ledecky hopes to make her fourth Olympic team and pass Jenny Thompson for the highest number of medals earned by a female swimmer (Thompson has 12 medals, eight of which are gold). If Ledecky succeeds, she could add to her 10 medals that include an 800m freestyle gold in London (2012) as a fifteen-year-old, and the historic 1-2 finish for her and Erica Sullivan in the 1500m freestyle in Tokyo. Also at the 2012 London Games, Haley Anderson took home USA Swimming’s first medal in open water, earning silver in the 10k.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games will provide another opportunity for American women to extend the highest-ranking medal count in swimming. Currently, the U.S. women proudly hold 257 medals, 107 of them gold. The next two countries are Germany (120 total with 37 gold) and Australia (96 total with 35 gold).

USA Swimming and the USA Swimming Foundation will continue to provide opportunities, create resources, and uplift women coaches, athletes, and volunteers in our sport. We look forward to continuing to work with our members to provide best-in-class support.