USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Program

By Reach for the Wall staff.

USA Swimming, the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming, announced that Nation’s Capital Swim Club (NCAP) has earned the top position in the USA Swimming Club Excellence program for 2017.  This is the 3rd consecutive title that NCAP has won under this program, which recognizes USA Swimming’s highest-performing clubs in the development of athletes 18 years and younger.   NCAP finished with nearly twice the number of points of second-place finisher, Marlins of Raleigh.

Below are all of the PVS teams that USA Swimming recognized under the Club Excellence Program in 2017:

Gold Medal Level

• Nation’s Capital Swim Club (90,635 points)

Silver Medal Level

• The Fish (10,517 points)
• Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club (9,075 points)

Bronze Medal Level

• Machine Aquatics (6,798 points)

Podium Club

NCAP also was inducted into the 2017 Podium Club for achieving a Gold Medal ranking for four consecutive years. In addition to earning Gold grant dollars, Podium Club members also receive a financial bonus from a pool of dollars to be divided equally among the number of teams in the Podium Club each year.

Background

USA Swimming established the Club Excellence Program to recognize up to 200 outstanding clubs for their commitment to performance excellence.   The Program is voluntary, and clubs seeking recognition under the program must submit an application to USA Swimming that shows that the club has:

• Attained at least Level 1 of the USAS Club Recognition Program; and
• Athletes who achieve a:
  • Bronze standard (equal to the 2016 LCM Junior National Standards);
  • Silver standard (equal to the 2016 LCM US Open Standards); or
  • Gold standard (equal to the 150th ranked female swimmer in the world from the prior year and the 200th ranked male  swimmer in the world from the prior year).

Every club that submits an application will be ranked based on the amount of points that its athletes scored under the FINA Points Table, a power point rating system that assigns point values to swimming performances.

Clubs may qualify for one of four levels of recognition:

• Gold: The top 20 highest ranked (point scoring) clubs. At least one 18 & under athlete from the club must achieve a Gold time standard.
• Silver: The top 100 highest ranked clubs (excluding Gold status clubs).  At least one 18 & under athlete must achieve the Silver time standard.
• Bronze: The top 200 highest ranked clubs (excluding Gold and Silver status clubs).  At least one 18 & Under athlete must achieve the Bronze time standard.
• Podium Club: Any club achieving the Gold Medal level for 4 consecutive years qualify for the Podium Club.

Upon recognition as a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal Club, recipients enjoy the following benefits:

• A 2017 4 ‘x 6’ banner recognizing their level of achievement;
• The right to use the 2017 Club Excellence Program logo on the club website and in advertising/promotional materials through December 31 of 2017;
• The club’s level of achievement is displayed on the USA Swimming website in the club search section; and
• Gold and Silver level clubs are eligible to apply for grant funding (from a total pot of $450,000)

In addition to the recognition above, USA Swimming recently profiled Machine Aquatics under the Club Excellence Program and has profiled NCAP several times (see here, here , here) and RMSC (see here).