Chrissi Rawak Ready for Challenges of Leading USA Swimming to LA28
As Chrissi Rawak prepares to take over as President and Chief Executive Officer of USA Swimming, moving the sport toward the Los Angeles Olympics, she is inspired by the past.
“The excitment is significant. I am old enough to remember when it was in L.A. last time, watching Janet Evans and Steve Lundquist and Rowdy Gaines crushing it in that pool,” Rawak told Swimming World. “There is a lot of passion around this sport, and we are driving toward L.A. We want to make it an unprecedented experience. This is a transformational moment for sport.”
It is a transformational moment for Rawak, too, who takes over after eight years as the University of Delaware Athletic Director. She has been in the sport of swimming as an athlete, coach and administrator.
“Why wouldn’t you want this job?” Rawak asked. “I started swimming competitively at about 10. I loved it. I was really fortunate to swim at Germantown Academy in Philadelphia and then went on to the University of Michigan where I swam and then coached as well. I have an incredible appreciation for the sport, as an athlete, a coach and an administrator. I have followed this sport my entire life.”
But her perspective changed when she coached at Michigan.
“The most informative experience I have had has been coaching and the lessons on team, discipline and all the other things you can imagine has shaped me into the leader I am today,” she said.
The next step in leadership is a big one as Rawak will be directing the sport for the entire country.
“My first priority is hiring a national team director. There has been a lot of good work done already. That sets the tone and then cascades to everything,” she said. “My vision is to continue to build on the excellence of USA Swimming. I know it will involve a lot of people and their perspectives and feedback. We are going to need everybody. It is not just an office in Colorado Springs, it is really a whole country.”
Rawak said working as an AD helped her add another perspective, especially in the bureaucracy of sport, something that will help her immensely in her new role.
“I have a deep commitment to this sport and sport in general – the power of sport and what it can do for communities. There is so much good that comes out of that,” she said. “The opportunities I have had to build programs and lead in higher education, which is not a simple place to be successful with complex situations with different constituents who all care deeply about their university, has been important. I think that swimming mirrors that with everything from swim lessons to Masters Swimming.”
Rawak knows that there will be obstacles that arise and all sorts of issues to deal with within the sport, especially when preparing to host the Olympics.
“I certainly don’t have a sense of all the challenges, but that is what I will be diving into,” Rawak said. “I look at anything as an opportunity before I look at it as a challenge. When you embrace it that way, you are able to find the good in everything.”
