Wilton resident Kevin Ring just marked his first anniversary as chief executive officer of USA Swimming and the USA Swimming Foundation. Ring came to the sport’s national governing body after holding leadership roles at Legends Golf and PGA of America, and is now leading USA Swimming’s athletic and philanthropic goals. He splits his time between the organization‘s Colorado Springs headquarters and his home base in Wilton.
Good Morning Wilton recently spoke with Ring about the first year in his new role. He shared an unexpected Wilton connection he found inside the organization; his views on Wilton’s “swim culture” and how it benefits the local community; his outlook for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles; and more.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
GMW: When you joined USA Swimming, you didn’t necessarily have a swimming background. How did it all come about?
Kevin Ring: I had come from the world of golf — a world of sports, really, as both my professional and personal life. When I got called about the job, my first comment was ‘Listen, I don’t have any swimming background.’ But they were actually looking for somebody who could view things differently, view the sport a little differently, and take best practices from other areas. My work at the PGA of America had a lot of parallels to the structure of USA Swimming, so it really became evident there was a lot of practical application I could bring to the job.
When I got the job, there was a lot of transition that was happening, which was necessary. Like any organization — whether it’s a business or a sports organization — change and innovation is required. We’re in a great spot today, but I always tell our team that if we’re not looking at how to get better, we’re not doing our job. Innovation, modernization, and change is just a requirement of what we do.
GMW: What was appealing to you about the sport?
Ring: The swim community is a lot of passionate people. Once you learn to swim, you can do it for the rest of your life. Swimming is one of those sports that you truly can do from cradle to grave. Even if somebody suffers from medical challenges, they can often times still get in the water and get exercise. If you go over to the Y, that pool is busy year-round. It’s a lifelong activity and that is part of what I love. And there aren’t many sports or activities that truly save lives, and [learn-to-swim programming] is an important part of what we do.
Right now my focus is swimming, but I look at what sports as a whole has done for my family — my four kids who all have been athletes in different sports, and my wife coaches at the high school — I just believe access to sports teaches everything, whether it’s grit or determination or discipline or how to be part of a team. [Editor’s note: Ring’s wife Chandra Ring is a Wilton High School field hockey coach and former president of the Wilton Youth Field Hockey Association, among many other sports- and community-related posts.]
GMW: What are your specific responsibilities?
Ring: There are two primary things that I have responsibility for. The first one is high performance, which is the most visible aspect of it — with the Olympics — and then there is the aspect of working with local swim communities to strengthen clubs, to get more kids in pools, to get more adults in pools, to make sure that we’re growing the sport.
But there’s a third aspect as well. I’m also the CEO of the USA Swimming Foundation, the philanthropic arm of USA Swimming. That is very localized. There are community swim programs where we go to underserved communities, give swimming lessons there and help grow swimming.
A lot of what we’re looking at is how do we grow the sport in an intentional way — removing the barriers to swimming, getting more kids in the pool, setting up the infrastructure — and to be ready for what should be a rocket ship coming out of [the Olympics in] 2028.
GMW: I wasn’t going to ask your predictions for the Olympics, but you did use the phrase “rocket ship,” so now I have to ask.
Ring: USA has historically been the most dominant country in this sport, and I don’t foresee any reason why that shouldn’t continue, based on the talent that we have and also with the coaches that we have in place. I think that will continue.
But with that excitement, that attention [that comes with the Olympics], and what our success should be in 2028, we’ve got to be ready to take advantage of the spotlight that will be on this sport.
GMW: What has the experience meant to you personally?
Ring: It’s been amazing. For me, this was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give back to the general community of sport that can mean so much to different people, and for me to be able to really make a difference — it really gave me the ability to help people learning to swim, a sport that saves lives, but also help athletes make dreams come true.
I’m so fortunate to have this job. My job every day is thinking about how to improve this sport, how to get more kids swimming, how to help high-performance athletes reach their goals. I get paid to give back. It’s truly a wonderful, wonderful opportunity.
GMW: You’ve mentioned the ‘community’ aspect a few times. So what does USA Swimming mean for the Wilton community?
Ring: It’s really interesting how so much connects. Wilton is such a strong swim community. We have a strong swim culture. The Wilton Wahoos are well known throughout the country as a historically strong program. When I got to USA Swimming, I spent some time with Christine [Freedman, CEO] at the [Riverbrook Regional YMCA in Wilton]. We talked about how we connect with a local swim club and what we could do to help them, to make sure that that Wahoos stays vibrant.
And interestingly, one of the USA Swimming Foundation board members is Greg Pinchbeck, a Wilton resident, which was just an unexpected connection. We probably live about a mile apart. In a national sport organization, two Wilton people are working together.
[The sport of swimming] does bring community together. It’s wonderful to see the people from around Wilton or really from all over Connecticut coming in for swim meets — what I love about that is the awareness of Wilton, and the vibrancy that can bring the community. Hopefully while they’re here, they’re going downtown to get a cup of coffee or get a sandwich or do something else, and that is the untold benefit of sports. It brings awareness of community, and it certainly brings economic impact to local communities.
GMW: With a year now under your belt, what else are you reflecting on?
Ring: What a privilege it is for me to be able to be the CEO of USA Swimming during a home Olympic Games with the events being held in SoFi stadium. It’s just amazing.
But the definition of success shouldn’t only be the Olympics. Success should be somebody getting into the pool for the first time, to putting their head under the water, to their first lap, to their first swim meet, to making their high school team or their college team, and then goes from there. This pyramid should be very, very broad at the base.
If the goal is to be a professional athlete or to be an Olympian, that’s an amazing goal. We’ve got to make sure that the bottom of the pyramid is solid — because if you don’t have the solid base, the tip of the pyramid cannot be successful.
