John Dussliere discusses the status of American open water swimming and how the community is populated by Project Riders, Project Designers, Project Hybrids and Project Authorities in a hard-hitting commentary, meant to help elevate the sport in general and USA Swimming in particular.
His goals, which is achieved by the American swimming community via an annual US$25+ million budget focused on 310,000 pool swimming members, include Build The Base, Promote The Sport and Achieve Competitive Success.
There are three national governing bodies and countries in particular whose open water swimming model in particular are currently achieving those three goals: Great Britain, Italy and Brazil. And there are many other nations heading in that direction with increasingly positive and high levels of success – from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, from Mexico to Argentina, from Japan to Ireland.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.