“It is incredibly competitive, and it’s getting more competitive, and we’re still right there in the mix. It’s almost like people see the rest of the world ‘catching up’ as somehow the U.S. racing backwards, and that is not the case at all. Other federations have a lot more low-hanging fruit, whether it’s the quality of travel or having more medical people on staff. That stuff affects performance a ton. And we’ve had that for a long time. And yet, all these other federations haven’t even had that. But we can still get better in so many ways. From an overall federation perspective, it is worth at least a deep-dive look at our structure. We haven’t done that well in the youth tournaments. I think a more consistent style and a more consistent philosophy from the younger teams all the way up through the senior teams is necessary. It’s a lot more difficult in America, because we don’t have the academy system that they have in Europe. They’re honestly better set up for a more holistic approach. It’s going to be more difficult here.”
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