Thursday, September 23, 2021
Swimming Continues to Steer the Path for Lindsay Mintenko
“I had fallen out of a tree and the doctor said swimming was good therapy for my knee. That is essentially the story.”
That simple childhood accident is what kickstarted a nearly 40-year career in the sport for USA Swimming National Team Managing Director, Lindsay Mintenko, the first ever female and U.S. Olympic swimmer senior executive to lead the organization’s National Team Division (since the inception of USA Swimming in 1980)
Her chance to oversee the largest-ever Olympic swimming team in her first trip at the helm began with the innocent recovery tactic that quickly turned into a youth summer league, which later (at eight years old) turned into enrolling as a club swimmer for her local YMCA — a pool and club where she would continue to train at through the remainder of her high school career.
Then, in 1992, Mintenko made her first National Junior Team roster, an accomplishment that would cause goals to be reevaluated and Olympic dreams to inch closer.
“After that, I didn’t really have any kind of affiliation with USA Swimming until I made my first National Team in ’97,” she said. “It was a lot of changing goals up until then – when I was nine, I thought I was going to be an Olympian, and then I thought it was going to be easy after I won my first state title, so there was a lot of changing goals.”
As the 2000 Sydney Olympics grew closer, Mintenko zeroed in on the 200-meter freestyle as her chance to achieve the Olympic dream she set forth when she was nine.
After touching first in the event at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, she flew to Sydney with momentum on her side. She carried that momentum into competition, finishing as the fourth seed in prelims. Then, during semifinals, she finished 12th, leaving her out of the final.
“In 2000, I didn’t have the Olympics that I wanted to,” she said, though she would go on to win gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay. “Being able to be on the podium, don’t get me wrong, is one of the greatest accomplishments ever, but I thought there was more I could do.”
The 2000 Olympics gave Mintenko a chip on her shoulder, as she decided to move forward with her pro career after the Sydney Games, which resulted in five Pan Pacific Championships medals, three world championships (LCM) medals and three U.S. national titles between the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics. She went on to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team in 2004 and would capture gold in Athens before coming back to the states and ending her career at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in front of a hometown crowd.
“I did some of my best swimming in those four years,” she said. “I was able to end my career at Short Course Worlds in Indiana, which is where I’m from and where my career started and was able to end my career on a happy note.”
Immediately following her swimming career, Mintenko did not envision a professional career in swimming. She even started out interning in a public relations firm before being offered an assistant coaching role at her alma mater, the University of Southern California. Shortly thereafter, in 2005, she was offered a role at USA Swimming working for the same National Team Division that kickstarted her career in 1997.
“I came into it [working for the National Team Division] almost 16 years ago and it has really just evolved since then,” she said. “Now, it is much more athlete centric from when I was an athlete. We have more communication tools that allow us to be athlete centric. We didn’t necessarily have those tools when I was an athlete. It was very limited communication with USA Swimming. I’d like to think that, now, we have a different kind of relationship.”
After showing great progress and leadership in her climb in the National Team Division, , USA Swimming President & CEO Tim Hinchey appointed Mintenko the Managing Director of the National Team in 2017.
“I feel like I’ve worked really hard to get into this role,” Mintenko said. “It is exciting to be the first female, but for me, it is even more exciting to be the first athlete. I think that just shows that there are athletes out there who are paying attention, who understand the sport and who have been a part of the sport for a super long time and want to get back in the sport and help make a good experience for future athletes and coaches.”
Since taking over as Managing Director, the U.S. has won at least 30 total medals in each of the last seven senior-level international competitions. However, in Mintenko’s eyes, the success of the National Team Division is not solely based off of international medals.
“The performance that everybody sees is through international medals and that kind of stuff, but I also am managing people,” she explained. “I’m managing programs and trying to have programs that support our athletes to be successful. I think there are two ways to look at success: You are managing the external, but you are managing the internal as well.”
Now, with a decorated competitive career and 16 years of experience working in the National Team Division, Mintenko continues to rely on what the sport has taught her along the way to help make the USA Swimming National Team Division the best it can be.
“This sport has been a part of my life for almost 40 years, which is crazy, so it is now a part of who I am. I was always a firm believer of swimming being something I do and not who I am, but now, I realize that it has helped me to become the person that I am.”
That simple childhood accident is what kickstarted a nearly 40-year career in the sport for USA Swimming National Team Managing Director, Lindsay Mintenko, the first ever female and U.S. Olympic swimmer senior executive to lead the organization’s National Team Division (since the inception of USA Swimming in 1980)
Her chance to oversee the largest-ever Olympic swimming team in her first trip at the helm began with the innocent recovery tactic that quickly turned into a youth summer league, which later (at eight years old) turned into enrolling as a club swimmer for her local YMCA — a pool and club where she would continue to train at through the remainder of her high school career.
Then, in 1992, Mintenko made her first National Junior Team roster, an accomplishment that would cause goals to be reevaluated and Olympic dreams to inch closer.
“After that, I didn’t really have any kind of affiliation with USA Swimming until I made my first National Team in ’97,” she said. “It was a lot of changing goals up until then – when I was nine, I thought I was going to be an Olympian, and then I thought it was going to be easy after I won my first state title, so there was a lot of changing goals.”
As the 2000 Sydney Olympics grew closer, Mintenko zeroed in on the 200-meter freestyle as her chance to achieve the Olympic dream she set forth when she was nine.
After touching first in the event at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, she flew to Sydney with momentum on her side. She carried that momentum into competition, finishing as the fourth seed in prelims. Then, during semifinals, she finished 12th, leaving her out of the final.
“In 2000, I didn’t have the Olympics that I wanted to,” she said, though she would go on to win gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay. “Being able to be on the podium, don’t get me wrong, is one of the greatest accomplishments ever, but I thought there was more I could do.”
The 2000 Olympics gave Mintenko a chip on her shoulder, as she decided to move forward with her pro career after the Sydney Games, which resulted in five Pan Pacific Championships medals, three world championships (LCM) medals and three U.S. national titles between the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics. She went on to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team in 2004 and would capture gold in Athens before coming back to the states and ending her career at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in front of a hometown crowd.
“I did some of my best swimming in those four years,” she said. “I was able to end my career at Short Course Worlds in Indiana, which is where I’m from and where my career started and was able to end my career on a happy note.”
Immediately following her swimming career, Mintenko did not envision a professional career in swimming. She even started out interning in a public relations firm before being offered an assistant coaching role at her alma mater, the University of Southern California. Shortly thereafter, in 2005, she was offered a role at USA Swimming working for the same National Team Division that kickstarted her career in 1997.
“I came into it [working for the National Team Division] almost 16 years ago and it has really just evolved since then,” she said. “Now, it is much more athlete centric from when I was an athlete. We have more communication tools that allow us to be athlete centric. We didn’t necessarily have those tools when I was an athlete. It was very limited communication with USA Swimming. I’d like to think that, now, we have a different kind of relationship.”
After showing great progress and leadership in her climb in the National Team Division, , USA Swimming President & CEO Tim Hinchey appointed Mintenko the Managing Director of the National Team in 2017.
“I feel like I’ve worked really hard to get into this role,” Mintenko said. “It is exciting to be the first female, but for me, it is even more exciting to be the first athlete. I think that just shows that there are athletes out there who are paying attention, who understand the sport and who have been a part of the sport for a super long time and want to get back in the sport and help make a good experience for future athletes and coaches.”
Since taking over as Managing Director, the U.S. has won at least 30 total medals in each of the last seven senior-level international competitions. However, in Mintenko’s eyes, the success of the National Team Division is not solely based off of international medals.
“The performance that everybody sees is through international medals and that kind of stuff, but I also am managing people,” she explained. “I’m managing programs and trying to have programs that support our athletes to be successful. I think there are two ways to look at success: You are managing the external, but you are managing the internal as well.”
Now, with a decorated competitive career and 16 years of experience working in the National Team Division, Mintenko continues to rely on what the sport has taught her along the way to help make the USA Swimming National Team Division the best it can be.
“This sport has been a part of my life for almost 40 years, which is crazy, so it is now a part of who I am. I was always a firm believer of swimming being something I do and not who I am, but now, I realize that it has helped me to become the person that I am.”