Lindsay Benko

Lindsay Dianne Benko (born November 29, 1976), known by her married name Lindsay Mintenko since 2005, is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympian, former world record-holder, and a managing director of USA Swimming. She represented the United States women as a Team Captain at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, taking a gold medal in freestyle relays both years. She held the short-course world record in the 400-meter freestyle at 3:59.53, for nearly three years from January 2003 to December 2005.

After taking All-American honors swimming for the University of Southern California, where she led the team to their first NCAA National championship in 1997, she served as their Assistant Coach for five years. She was appointed to USA Swimming's National Team staff in 2006, and in 2017 became the first woman to hold the position of USA National Team Division Managing Director, which included management responsibilities over both the men's and women's U.S. Olympic swim teams. Not surprisingly, during her high school swimming career, she was an Indiana State champion in multiple years in the 100-yard freestyle and retained the record from 1993 to 2001. She simultaneously held the state record in the 200 freestyle in multiple years, retaining it for the ten-year period from 1991 to 2011. Swimming for Elkhart Central in Elkhart, she captured the Indiana state title for the 100 free in November 1993, with a time of 50.02. Beginning her senior year in September 1994, Benko held six total state championships, which included a state title as a member of the 4x100 freestyle relay team for Elkhart Central. Lindsay earned All-American honors 10 times at Elkhart Central and received the 1995 Catherine Wolf Award for the outstanding female athlete in the Elkhart Community Schools.

Swimming career after high school

Swimming at USC At the University of Southern California from 1995 to 1999, Lindsay was a 21-time All-American swimmer for Hall of Fame Head Coach Mark Schubert. Schubert also served as a U.S. Olympic Coach from 1984 to 2008, during Lindsay's Olympic competition years in 2000 and 2004. During her college years, she won five individual national titles, with three in the 500-yard freestyle and two in the 200-yard backstroke, demonstrating her versatility in a stroke other than freestyle, where she consistently excelled. Many of her titles were in freestyle relays for USC.

2000, 2002, 2004 World Short-course Championships Benko excelled in short-course competition, taking a total of 10 medals including 5 golds at the World Short-Course Championships. Her Short-course World Championship golds individually included one in the 400-meter freestyle in 2000 in Athens and a gold in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter backstroke in 2002 in Moscow. In 2004, she took a gold in the 200-meter freestyle, in Indianapolis.

Short course records Lindsay set American short course records in the 200, 400, and 800-meter freestyle. She also held World short course Records in the 200 and 400-meter freestyle. In the episode, Morgan Hudson (played by Courtnee Draper) fights to have girls soccer reinstated after it is canceled, and Nick Lighter (played by Michael Galeota) uses a news crew to promote girls soccer and to raise money for the school's team with a fundraising car wash.

Marriage In Indiana, on Saturday, May 7, 2005, Benko married Canadian swimmer Mike Mintenko, a 2000 and 2004 Olympian and a Canadian record holder in the 50-meter butterfly. She uses her married name professionally.

Coaching and swimming management, 2001–2023 After five years as an USC assistant coach, she was appointed to the staff of USA Swimming's National Team, a position she held from 2006 to 2017.

Managing director, U.S. National Team Division, 2017–2024 On October 18, 2017, she was formally promoted and became the first woman to lead USA Swimming's National Team Division as managing director, a position she would until September 20, 2024, which gave her responsibility over both the U.S. Olympic men and women's teams in domestic, world, and Olympic competition. Lindsay was tasked with focusing on athlete and coach development and support for the National Team division.

Likely preparing for a role in swimming management and administration, in 2015, she received her master's degree in Sports Administration from California University of Pennsylvania.

In June 2022, Mintenko, as U.S. American Team Manager announced that Caleb Dressel would be pulled from the World Swimming Championships in Budapest for medical reasons, ending a World Championship career that had garnered two gold medals.

In September 2023, USA Swimming, under the executive management of Mintenko, announced the appointment of Todd DeSorbo as the Head Coach for the U.S. Olympic Women's swim team in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and Anthony Nesty as the Head Coach for the U.S. Olympic Men's Swim team.

On September 6, 2024, Mintenko announced during a press release that she would resign from the managing director position effective September 20, 2024, following the resignation of USA Swimming president and CEO, Tim Hinchey. The resignations followed letters written by both the American Swim Coaches Association, or simply ASCA, and USA Swimming's coaching advisory board, which expressed the organizations' lack of confidence in the leadership of USA Swimming.

Swimming her mother's signature event, Lindsay's daughter Madi Mintenko was a Girl's 200-meter freestyle champion at the 2023 Summer Junior Nationals for age group 15–16 with a time of 1:58.07. Her performance was the seventh fastest age-group time in the history of American competition in the event.

Honors In 2012, Lindsay was inducted into the University of Southern California Athletic Hall of Fame, and she has also been a member of the Elkhart County Sports Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Indiana High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

She currently resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Mike, and their two children.