By Brent Rutemiller<\/p>\n
PHOENIX, Arizona, September 13. WITH the election of a new USA Swimming President only days away, delegates are assembled in Dearborn, Mich., to discuss the pros and cons of the candidates.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, controversy surrounds the process. On the slate are three fine candidates with various backgrounds. SwimmingWorldMagazine.com\u2019s early polls suggest that an overwhelming majority of readers would like to see the next president have a background in officiating, administrating and coaching. Jim Wood is the only candidate that has a coaching and administrative background. The other two, Mike Saltzstein and Jeff Gudman have backgrounds in officiating and administrating.<\/p>\n
Our current online poll shows that Wood is leading our unofficial vote by a mere three votes over Saltzstein and Gudman, with Gudman only a few behind Saltzstein. It is shaping up to be a close battle.<\/p>\n
However, the election process in the future may change as to whose name can appear on the slate. It has been recommended by the United States Olympic Committee, USA Swimming\u2019s Governance Task Force and an outside governance consultant that an ethics committee and a nominating committee be established to select candidates. So far, no action has been taken to implement such a procedure.<\/p>\n
If such committees were in place now, then recent controversy over one candidate\u2019s alleged involvement with an SEC insider trading case would have been brought forward and flushed out prior to this election. Swimming World Magazine<\/i> has placed calls to this person to confirm or deny that he is the person named in the SEC case. Until confirmation, his name will be withheld. It is important to point out that official SEC records show no admission of guilt or innocence over the infraction and a modest fine and penalty were imposed. The fact remains that an ethics committee and a nominating committee would have dealt with this issue through an approved process. Now a cloud, justifiable or not, hangs over the election.<\/p>\n
It is up to the delegates themselves to do their due diligence to select a new leader that will have a profound effect on national and international swimming issues. Swimming World Magazine<\/i> encourages USA Swimming to follow through with the establishment of ethics and nominating committees for all future presidential elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Brent Rutemiller PHOENIX, Arizona, September 13. WITH the election of a new USA Swimming President only days away, delegates are assembled in Dearborn, Mich., to discuss the pros and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n