Since this is 2021, you probably have an email address. That email address is almost surely your name @ gmail or Yahoo or Outlook. Or it’s some super-cute thing, or it’s a combo of your name and numbers, like MP8for8Beijing or Usain958yams, again at gmail or Yahoo or Outlook. Like that. Right?
Not to say that things were maybe in need of an update at FINA, the international sports federation that oversees swimming and five other water-related disciplines, four of them Olympic sports (water polo, diving, artistic swimming and open water — the federation is pushing hard for the fifth, high dive), but literally no one at FINA had her or his own individual email. No one.
For years and years, emails went to departments. Not to people. That’s — how it was.
So, back to the 2021 thing. FINA now has, after 35 years, a new executive director, Brent Nowicki, an American lawyer, who succeeds Cornel Marculescu.
In Omaha: Brent Nowicki, new FINA executive director
One of the first — of many — changes: FINA staff will get their own email addresses.
It’s no small thing.
It’s significant, and it speaks not only to the way Nowicki is aiming to empower staff but to the way he intends FINA to be entirely more responsive to the range of stakeholders the federation serves — athletes, especially — as its leadership team, Nowicki and newly elected president Husain Al-Musallam of Kuwait, ushers in generational change.
Marculescu is 79, turning 80 on July 17. Nowicki is 42.
The former FINA president, Julio Maglione of Uruguay, is 85. He was first elected FINA president in 2009. Al-Musallam, elected president earlier this month, is 61.
For those who are having trouble reading tea leaves about whether FINA matters, and Al-Musallam matters: IOC president Thomas Bach received Al-Musallam on Wednesday, Olympic Day worldwide, in Lausanne.
Al-Musallam was elected, it should be noted, without opposition. Nonetheless, he made plain his position that aquatics — all of it — stands for a youthful, dynamic scene that needs new ideas and new enthusiasm. And — considerably enhanced transparency.
This is the backdrop that sees Nowicki taking over for Marculescu.
Nowicki comes to FINA from the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. There he served as managing counsel. He also served as head of the CAS anti-doping division at both Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018. Before coming to CAS in 2013, he worked in private practice at a law firm, Hodgson Ross, in the United States. He is from Buffalo, New York.
“I am committing myself over the next 30 days to listening and learning,” Nowicki said last week in an interview — his first, he said, since taking over as managing director — amid the U.S. swim Trials in Omaha.
“I need to learn what the copy room does, what the mailroom does, what the sports department does. I need to get as much knowledge as I can before start to do the rebuilding we’re going to do.
“We’re going to start pulling boards off the house and find out which ones are good and which are bad. We have a strong foundation. A long history. Good employees. We have people committed to the sport. My hope is we can build on that foundation and rebuild the boards of the house and sit down with the architect and get a good blueprint.”
He also said that he has noted he “has a team of employees ready to explode,” meaning eager to effect constructive results, and added, “I want to secure early wins that mean something to the president.”
Pause here to give Marculescu significant credit.
Under his watch, FINA grew significantly in size, revenue and import. Its world championships became bid-f0r events. At the Games, it became must-see TV. As just one measure of FINA’s rank now: at the forthcoming Tokyo Games, it is aquatics — not track and field — that will boast the most medal events, 49. Track and field will count 48.
It is also the case that 35 years is a long time. Even Juan Antonio Samaranch pulled “only” 21 atop the IOC, 1980-2001, before stepping aside for Jacque Rogge.
Nowicki’s tenure starts with — as might be expected — upsides and challenges.
His first day was, to be honest, not a dream. in Lausanne, he and Dale Neuburger, a former FINA vice president who is now the federation treasurer, went to lunch. On the way back to the office, they got caught in a driving rainstorm. More like a monsoon. It soaked Nowicki’s shoes and socks. Back in the office, the computer didn’t work. The CEO of a European federation rang — Nowicki took the call in his bare feet — threatening litigation over an issue.
“Not how the first day was supposed to go,” Nowicki said with a smile.
“Good news,” Neuburger said. “He came back for a second day.”
Umbrellas and galoshes for everyone and, in no particular order, more substantive challenges, as Nowicki ticked off just some:
Lack of communication. Lack of engagement. Transparency. How to help athletes transition post-competition. How to accelerate development worldwide. An ongoing lawsuit involving ISL. Finance.
Some thoughts from the new executive director:
On the ISL matter, and whether and how soon it can be resolved: “It not too soon [to be thinking about it] but the answer is simple: I’m not going to comment on pending litigation.”
Communication, inside and out: “Let’s be very clear. We’ve had a no-communication policy. That’s not an approach I can subscribe to. I’ve been very clear in the early stages of my tenure that we need to be responsive to the memberships’ needs.”
On working with Al-Musallam: “We have a president who has a clear vision and mandate. I don’t go to work each day looking backward.”
The financial picture is simultaneously sobering (for now) and promising (very soon).
Follow along, please, and keep in mind both that the FINA books are kept in Swiss francs, which are marked by the denomination CHF, and that the current exchange rate is roughly 1000 CHF to $1090 USD.
Here we go:
In the pandemic year 2020, FINA endured a loss of 21.5 million CHF. Oof.
But — current cash is 85 million CHF.
What does that show? Strong financial management over many years. (Again, credit to Marculescu and the FINA board of directors, which is called its “bureau.” )
The current FINA balance sheet? 176 million CHF.
What does that mean, particularly in comparison to the dozens of other international sports federations?
It means that FINA, by comparison, is in a relatively strong position, and could hold on better than almost all during an unexpected crisis brought on by the likes of, say, covid-19.
Did the crisis prompt staff layoffs? No. FINA has retained its 35-person staff.
This means it did not lose valuable, in the term of art, human capital.
The IOC lumps the international sports federations into various categories for payouts following the Games — A, B, C and so on. FINA is in the A group, along with gymnastics and track and field. The A payout is $40 million. That payout, per FINA, is expected in 2021 and 2022. Similar payouts are projected for Paris 2024.
Here is where the projections start looking, well, rosy.
A four-year Olympic cycle is called a quadrennium. Across the 2017-20 quadrennium, FINA managed only three major events: two world championships and one world swim championship. Across the 2021-24 quad, it expects seven major events: two Olympic Games, two world championships, and three world swim championships. Upshot: a substantial increase in revenue.
It’s a basic in sports that such major events bring with them rights fees. For FINA bookkeeping purposes, those rights fees are recorded in the year of competition. FINA already has its events schedule secured well into the years ahead: 2021 world swim (Abu Dhabi); 2022 world championships (Fukuoka, Japan); 2023 world championships (Doha); 2024 world swim (Budapest); 2025 world championships (Kazan, Russia); 2027 world championships (Budapest).
So:
By the end of 2022, FINA expects, the federation will have made up that 2020 21.5 million CHF loss via the marketing, broadcast, and hosting commitments under contract for 2021 and 2022.
And by the end of 2022, it further expects, FINA ought to have in reserve funds more than 100 million CHF.
That would make for one of the most stable positions in the Olympic scene.
Taking another hard look at that schedule — by next summer, Nowicki will have been through an Olympics and two championships, in Abu Dhabi and Fukuoka. That’s called learning on the fly. It’s also called being decisive. There is no alternative.
“I’m totally aware I have a lot of work to do,” Nowicki said. “I’m not telling you I’m going to be perfect. I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. What I can say is I’ll fix every one of them.
“I know I’ll make judgment calls that are perhaps not the right ones. Good leaders find a way to fix their problems. Bad ones,” he said, and let’s be perfectly clear, he was speaking generally, “just sit on them.”