USA Shooting has hired Matt Suggs to be its next CEO. Suggs is a former national team member and has been a member of Shooting's board since May '19. The NGB has had a vacancy in its top executive role since interim CEO Bob Gambardella stepped down in May and hasn’t had a permanent CEO since June '19. As a board member, Suggs played a role in creating Shooting’s new strategic plan, which aims, in part, to provide more financial backing for Olympians. “Our objective in that strategic plan is to create a model where we can support those athletes economically through two Olympic cycles and also provide them a glide path to a traditional career or a career in sports administration with the team or a coaching position,” said Suggs. “My primary objective, or the thing I think the selection committee hired me for, is to hit that strategic plan.” According to Suggs, Shooting has largely been able to weather the Covid storm thanks to cost savings from not traveling to international competitions. "We did lose some revenue that would have been generated, specifically by the Junior Olympic state and national championships that we didn’t hold this year," said Suggs. "Those are significant sources of revenue. But it’s really been offset by the fact that we haven’t been traveling."
MOVING FORWARD: Suggs noted that shooting has been identified as one of the safer sports, related to coronavirus, since competitors remain distanced and don’t share equipment, though he says a remaining hurdle is limited access to the NGB’s training center in Colorado Springs. As of now, the USOPC will only allow entry to two shooters at a time. “We really need for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to allow us to have at least our Olympic team and our Olympic hopefuls training on that range,” Suggs said.
