Ski Federation Led By Former WSL CEO Withdraws Bid To Govern American Surfing

Today, in news that’ll have zero impact on the sensations you experience next time you stand up on a wave, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Federation has officially withdrawn its bid to govern Olympic surfing in America. 

This happened last Friday, and it marks a turning point in a story that has been evolving since early this year. No idea what we’re talking about? Let’s catch you up to speed, sunshine. 

When surfing got Olympified, every country had to either pick or build a national governing body to run it in Olympic terms. In Australia, that’s Surfing Australia. In France, it’s the Fédération Française de Surf. In the U.S., it was USA Surfing, which ran things when the sport debuted in Tokyo. 

And then things got weird. A USOPC [U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee] audit from 2019 flagged USA Surfing for failing to properly disclose and manage conflicts of interest, never finishing an independent financial audit it had promised, and running its high-performance program and books with flimsy controls and unresolved debt from its predecessor, Surfing America. Follow-up reviews in 2020 and 2021 said those problems hadn’t “markedly improved.” The USOPC suspended funding and ultimately pushed USA Surfing into a voluntary decertification deal in late 2021 — at which point the USOPC itself took over the Olympic surf program.

After the audit blow-up, a new regime stepped in at USA Surfing. CEO Becky Fleischauer and a rebuilt board put in modern bylaws, ethics and conflict-of-interest policies, and real financial controls, then started the long and tedious work of proving to the USOPC that USA Surfing could be trusted again. They secured new investment, kept running the main U.S. youth contest series and ISA teams, and began lobbying hard to get USA Surfing re-certified as the official NGB. 

However, they had company. U.S. Ski & Snowboard (USSS) — a Park City-based machine with ~172 employees and more than $60 million a year in revenue — decided it wanted surfing too. Led by former WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, USSS pitched itself as the cashed-up option: big name partnerships, serious sports-science infrastructure, athletes training in Olympic-grade gyms, the works. The 2028 Olympics in LA are coming up, and commercial opportunities are aplenty. Adding a summer sport would give the USSS something to sell 12 months a year instead of just in winter. Ooh la la! 

From there, it was all audits, reports, public comment periods, and USOPC-run public hearings where both sides dragged argued why they should control U.S. Olympic surfing. USA Surfing leaned heavily on the “surfing should be run by surfers” angle — pointing to its national championships, ISA results, and backing from the ISA and WSL — while USSS played the “we have money, systems, and Olympic experience” card. 

The USOPC scheduled multiple hearings in 2025 — one round in April, then a second USA Surfing hearing set for November. And then, just days before that second hearing, the twist: U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the Sophie-Goldschmidt-led challenger, formally withdrew its bid to be surfing’s NGB. In a public statement, USSS said the environment wasn’t collaborative enough (lol) and that its energy was better spent on its existing winter athletes. 

That left USA Surfing as the lone applicant still standing in front of the USOPC’s certification review group. Throughout this process, many of surfing’s most prominent heads voiced public support for USA Surfing — including Gold Medalists Carissa Moore and Caroline Marks, ISA President Fernando Aguerre, WSL CEO Ryan Crosby, and OGs Ian Cairns, Shaun Tomson, and Peter Townend. This was backed up by political support from California Congressman Ted W. Lieu, the San Clemente City Council and many more.

“Together, they delivered a unified message: USA Surfing is compliant, capable, and firmly rooted in the community it serves,” read USA’s latest press release.  

Now, it’s up to the USOPC to keep running and decide whether the rebuilt organization deserves to get its Olympic torch back.

The hearing was yesterday. Notes? Dive into a 27-page recap here if you’ve got the appetite. The USOPC needs to process all the information and make the call. When I was getting kicked out of an apartment in Biarritz in 2019, a potential buyer came and toured it while I was still living there. She left saying she had to “meditate” on it. She did not make an offer, and the meager one-bedroom has since doubled in value.

So, what now? 

Idk. Go surfing and, in between waves, look up at the clouds. Perhaps they’ll look scaly. There’s an old saying, “Mackerel skies and mares’ tails make lofty ships to carry low sails.” 

That typically means a storm is arriving within 24 hours.