19-time Paralympic medalist Erin Popovich has been employed because the Chief of Workers for the Purdue for Life Basis after departing because the Director of U.S. Para Swimming following the Paris 2024 Paralympic Video games.
The Purdue for Life Basis is a Purdue alumni affiliation that connects the Purdue Alumni Affiliation, President’s Council, and the John Purdue Membership. The position has been moved to a senior management place as a part of a remaking of the group’s management underneath new President and CEO Julie Dussliere.
Dussliere and Popovich have an extended relationship from their roles on the USOPC. Dussliere spent 21 years in management of the USOPC, together with the final two as Senior Vice President, Chief of Paralympics & Internally Managed Sports activities, earlier than leaving in September. Among the many internally managed sports activities she oversaw was swimming.
Dussliere spent eight years as a swim coach, together with serving as the top coach and enterprise supervisor of Rocket Aquatics in Syracuse, New York from 1999 via 2003. She additionally hung out with the Kansas Metropolis Blazers, Liverpool Jets, and West Coast Aquatics.
Dussliere is a Purdue alum, the place she was an Educational All-Huge Ten Convention honoree.
“I’ve had the privilege of figuring out Erin for a few years, and I’m extremely proud to welcome her to our Purdue for Life workforce,” Dussliere stated. “Her ardour and dedication — solid via her outstanding profession — will undoubtedly make an necessary impression on our efforts to attach and have interaction the worldwide Purdue neighborhood.”
As an athlete, Popovich competed on the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Paralympic Video games. She was the primary ESPY Award winner for greatest feminine athlete with a incapacity and was additionally named the Girls’s Sports activities Basis Sportswoman of the 12 months after successful seven gold medals in Athens.
She gained the identical ESPY award once more in 2009.
Popovich’s tenure main the nationwide para-swimming program ended underneath clouds, although. Her departure coincided with the shutdown of the resident swimming program.
This system has been on the middle of scandal in the previous couple of years, as in fall 2022, Paralympic gold medalist Robert Griswold was accused of repeatedly raping a U.S. Paralympic teammate with extreme autism whom he roomed with on the U.S. Paralympic Coaching Heart from January via August. The household of the alleged sufferer sued Griswold, the USOPC, and SafeSport, although the latter was in the end dropped from the lawsuit. Nearly two years later, the case stays in limbo and the prison case pursued first by the Colorado Springs police division and later by SafeSport stays open however inactive.
The usParalympic swimming workforce made headlines on the finish of the Paris Video games, when 4 swimmers, together with star Jessica Lengthy, had been banned from attending the closing ceremony after being admonished for his or her social media conduct. Each the USOPC and Popovich points statements on the sanctions; neither detailed the conduct in query, although it’s seemingly associated to social media posts the place the 4 swimmers appeared to query the incapacity classification of their teammate Christie Raleigh-Crossley, which the 4 might face additional disciplinary motion for.
Popovich graduated from Colorado State in 2007 with a level in well being and train science.
