By SwimSwam Contributors on SwimSwam
By Dr. Chelsea Ale
Faculty athletics is altering. Income sharing is on the horizon. NIL is rising quickly. Authorized rulings like Home v. NCAA are forcing long-overdue conversations about equity and compensation. However as these developments unfold, one other shift is going on quietly—and dangerously.
Olympic sports activities are being left behind.
Athletic departments throughout the nation are making painful selections, and too usually, it’s Olympic sports activities applications that get minimize first. Over the previous few years alone, we’ve seen faculties get rid of males’s gymnastics, wrestling, swimming and diving, monitor and subject, and extra. Even when applications are spared, many are shrinking rosters or lowering scholarship assist simply to outlive.
I’ve spent my life in Olympic sport—as a diver, as a coach, as somebody who has run the world’s largest diving camp, and now because the President of the U.S. Skilled Diving Coaches Affiliation. I can inform you this with absolute certainty: collegiate athletics is likely one of the most necessary items of our Olympic pipeline. And proper now, it’s in jeopardy.
America doesn’t have a centralized government-funded coaching system like many different nations. As an alternative, we’ve relied on a uniquely American ecosystem—one the place Olympic hopefuls develop by way of youth sports activities, membership groups, and most critically, faculty athletics. NCAA applications present athletes with elite teaching, energy and conditioning, diet, medical care, educational assist, world-class amenities, and common high-level competitors. These should not luxuries—they’re important.
Collegiate sport is the place our Olympians develop. It’s the place they refine their expertise, construct resilience, and keep motivated. With out it, most of them merely wouldn’t make it to the following stage.
For a lot of Olympic sports activities, faculty is the tip aim. It’s what retains younger athletes within the sport. When there’s an opportunity to compete at a faculty you’re pleased with, characterize a college that believes in you, and be a part of a staff that helps your objectives—you’re extra prone to preserve coaching, even when the percentages are robust. Particularly in sports activities the place there’s little or no skilled path, faculty is every little thing.
However that dream is fading. We’re slicing lifelines.
Title IX stays an necessary instrument in guaranteeing fairness, nevertheless it can’t be the one factor preserving these applications alive. We should worth Olympic sports activities not only for compliance, however for his or her contribution to our nationwide id, worldwide success, and private improvement of athletes who characterize the easiest of us.
And the timing couldn’t be extra pressing. The Olympic Video games are coming to Los Angeles in 2028. We’ll host the world—and we must be doing every little thing we will proper now to organize our athletes to shine on their dwelling soil. What message can we ship if we dismantle the very system that produces these athletes? How can we ask them to hold our flag if we’ve stripped away their pathway to get there?
This isn’t nearly medals. That is about neighborhood. Character. Nationwide satisfaction.
Olympic sports activities could not generate large media rights or promote out stadiums, however their affect is profound. These athletes encourage us. They function function fashions. They embody self-discipline, sacrifice, and willpower. They usually give greater than they obtain—and so they do it out of affection for his or her sport and satisfaction of their nation.
If we wish Olympic sports activities to outlive and thrive, we’d like motion now:
Athletic departments should discover inventive monetary options that protect Olympic applications, not get rid of them.
Conferences and the NCAA ought to set up protections or incentives for sustaining broad-based sport choices.
Nationwide Governing Our bodies (NGBs) must deepen their partnerships with universities to share assets, programming, and advocacy.
Philanthropic and alumni networks must be mobilized round Olympic sports activities, particularly with LA 2028 forward.
The game neighborhood at giant, together with these of us in management roles, should increase our voices—loudly and sometimes—to make sure these sports activities should not forgotten.
On the U.S. Skilled Diving Coaches Affiliation, we’re actively working to guard and promote diving in any respect ranges. We’re launching new training initiatives, certification pathways, and nationwide advocacy efforts. However we can’t do that alone. No single sport can. We should come collectively—coaches, athletes, directors, alumni, and followers—to guard the way forward for Olympic sport in the US.
This isn’t only a sports activities difficulty. It’s a values difficulty. Are we a rustic that solely helps what’s worthwhile? Or are we a rustic that invests in excellence, ardour, and function—even when it doesn’t include a greenback signal hooked up?
Let’s construct a collegiate sports activities system that values all athletes. Let’s create pathways that uplift, not get rid of. Let’s be certain that when the world turns its eyes to Los Angeles in 2028, they see not simply greatness—however a rustic that stood up and fought to guard it.
Now could be the time. Let’s save collegiate Olympic sports activities—earlier than it’s too late.
ABOUT DR. CHELSEA ALE
Dr. Chelsea Ale is the President of the U.S. Skilled Diving Coaches Affiliation and a professor of Sport Administration on the College of Alabama. A former Division I diving coach and athlete, she advocates for the preservation of Olympic and non-revenue sports activities by way of strategic management, athlete-centered coverage, and sustainable funding fashions.
Learn the complete story on SwimSwam: Now Is the Time: A Name to Shield Collegiate Olympic Sports activities
