Making an Olympic Splash in Sport Management

In the wake of the 2024 Summer Olympics, silver medal-winning Team USA Artistic Swimming and the team CEO Adam Andrasko ’08, have been enjoying the celebration, which was capped off with a visit to the White House, where fans cheered from the lawn while swimmers were honored by President Biden.

But Andrasko didn’t have too much time to bask in the glory; he has a 7,000-member-strong nonprofit sport organization to run. Artistic swimming, formerly called synchronized swimming, is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine accompanied by music. USA Artistic Swimming organizes, participates in, and promotes a variety of competitive events beginning at the local level for ages ranging from 12 to adult international competitors.

An alumnus of CU legacy institution Lock Haven University’s sport administration program, known today as CU’s sport management program, Andrasko also minored in coaching and played football for the Bald Eagles. His college career as a student and athlete was steeped in every aspect of sport management, an experience that comes in handy today as CEO.

"Everybody thinks of Team USA in a very Olympic form, right? When we see them on the biggest stage, often that leads us to believe that they are sophisticated sports organizations, similar to what we see in pro sports. To be honest, in most cases that couldn’t be further from reality," Andrasko says.

His title might be CEO, but he effectively functions as CEO, CFO, head of marketing, and HR director. His responsibilities span fundraising, training, running events, managing USA Artistic Swimming’s 7,000 members, the insurance policy for those members, and ensuring the safety of the sport. Andrasko and his team of just nine employees keep the organization running.

For fans of professional sports, team ownership or management are often where blame is laid for poor performance. Andrasko says his experience is a bit different: "My main constituent base is the membership. There are approximately 7,000 of them. And that’s really where my main focus is. We can talk about the Olympic team all the time, because that is the big, beautiful, shiny object that we’re all trying to strive towards, but our day-to-day is focused on making sure that the membership is happy, and we’ve done a really good job of reinventing the culture of artistic swimming. That has a big impact on what we’ve done in the national team program, but it’s also every granular piece down to every social media post, every email that we send to membership. And that’s our focus, to make sure that they’re bought in and excited."

"When I point to things I learned in college, it typically is the hands-on endeavors that we had to pursue. I’ve taken small pieces and moved them through my career path, and enlarged them significantly. But the foundation of those things were learned at Lock Haven."

From Classroom to Boardroom to Swimming Pool 

The foundations for Andrasko’s career were laid at CU, where the sport management program was emerging as a leader among its peers–and it continues to develop and grow today. 

Peter Campbell, assistant chair of the department of management and professor of sport management, notes that the undergraduate bachelor’s program in sport management now has 230 students at Commonwealth University–156 students at the Lock Haven campus, 59 at the Bloomsburg campus, and 15 at the Mansfield campus. 

"We are projecting continued growth for the next two years as the program continues to develop at the Bloomsburg and Mansfield campuses," notes Campbell." While remaining a strong and growing academic choice of students on the Lock Haven campus." 

Hands-on learning and experience in the field through volunteer work and internships is an essential component of the program, Campbell says. "We emphasize from the start of each student’s college career that they should look to gain practical experiences, to supplement their academic development, to succeed as professionals in their chosen field of sport management." 

Experiential learning was a key aspect of Andrasko’s Haven experience. "When I point to things I learned in college, it typically is the hands-on endeavors that we had to pursue," he says. "There were a lot of marketing projects and sponsorship projects and ‘create events’ projects that I’ve taken small pieces of and moved them through my career path, and obviously enlarged them significantly. But the foundation of those things were learned at Lock Haven." 

Campbell notes that last year, students volunteered or worked at the College Football Championships in Houston, Texas; the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Cleveland, Ohio; and the MLB Classic contest in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 

As an undergraduate, Andrasko interned with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, located conveniently on Lock Haven’s campus at the time. Another internship, after he’d earned a master’s degree from Old Dominion University in 2009, launched his career. He turned eight months with the Olympic Committee into six years of employment with the organization. That was followed by serving as member services director for USA Field Hockey before taking the helm of USA Artistic Swimming in 2018.

 Another important component of Andrasko’s CU experience were faculty mentors. Former Lock Haven professor Charles Crowley helped Andrasko navigate a new field of study. Additionally, he says, "both Lallys [Dr. Patricia Lally and Dr. Richard Lally], who are still at Lock Haven, were really beneficial to me in helping me think differently and getting out of a mindset that wasn’t as broad as it needed to be for me to reach this point." Andrasko also cites Campbell–director of athletics during his student years–and former athletics director Sharon Taylor as important influences.

Andrasko adds, “There’s a special person at Lock Haven who wasn’t a professor of mine, his name is on Robinson Hall, Dr. Gerry Robinson.” Dr. Gerald R. Robinson served as professor of science and mathematics, dean of instruction, and vice provost for academic affairs before his retirement in 1976. By the time Andrasko came into his life, Robinson had lost touch with the university community. “We met at church and we created a real friendship,” Andrasko says. Robinson was a sports

fan, so Andrasko and his friends brought Robinson to football and basketball games. "I remember being impressed with the character and caring of Adam, and his fellow students," says Campbell. "It reminded me that our goal as a university is to help prepare students not only to be successful in their major but also to be quality and beneficial contributors to their communities” Andrasko still cherishes the time spent with Robinson and the wisdom he shared. "I know that in the later years in his life, our energy and excitement helped him get through each and every day."

Shared Success 

Looking to the future, Andrasko has many goals for Team USA Artistic Swimming, not least of which is a gold medal for the national team. 

"There’s a lot more financial stability. There’s a lot more growth in the sport that can be done. There’s a lot of refining things that we can do to make the sport better for our current membership. And we’re going to do all those things, and then hopefully, they result in a better culture, a better national team program," he says. Additionally, there are other Olympic level competitions within the sport where he hopes Team USA can reach for medals in the future, such as the duet. 

In the meantime, Campbell and others in the sport management program and at CU more broadly continue to carry pride in Andrasko’s success.

"Personally, it was wonderful to cheer on the USA Artistic Swimming program to a silver medal at the summer Olympics knowing that one of our own Bald Eagles was the CEO,” Campbell says." As far as Adam is concerned, his career is still growing and developing. We are very proud of his accomplishments to date, and we always appreciate when he takes the time to visit campus and talk to current students. We hope to have him visit and share his Olympic experience."

Andrasko believes his achievements belong to all who helped him along the way, and in particular to his supporters and cheerleaders at Lock Haven. 

"I want to send a strong sentiment out to everything that is Lock Haven–not just the university, but also the town, the people there– they were always there and always supportive, and my community will always be really special to me. Every time I go back there I get a little bit choked up and it makes me really proud to be a Bald Eagle. I hope that my success, they feel it too. They are a part of it too."