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.

Early years and education
Benko attended the Stanley Clark School in South Bend, Indiana, for her elementary education. Upon graduating from Stanley Clark, she attended Elkhart Central High School in Elkhart, Indiana, where she lettered in swimming all four years from 1991 through her graduation in 1995. Lindsay made her reputation dominating the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events, taking eight individual state championship titles in her four-year high school career.

Showing promise early, as only a freshman at Elkhart Central in the 13-14 age group, she was ranked first in the country for the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 26.90 and second in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 57.77 by United States Swimming. 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 1993-2001. She simultaneously held the state record in the 200 freestyle in multiple years, retaining it for the ten-year period from 1991-2011.

At Elkhart, she was "the first swimmer in IHSAA history to sweep two individual events all four years while piling up All-American honors." Swimming for Elkhart Central in Indianapolis, 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 at USC
At the University of Southern California from 1995-1999, 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 1984-2008, 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.

Leading USC to the 1997 NCAA National Championship
More important than her individual accomplishments, in 1997 she was at the center of USC's only NCAA women's swimming and diving championship.

Graduating from USC in 1999, with a Bachelor's in Communications and a Minor in Business, she acquired the academic background that would soon launch her career in both swim coaching and sports management.

2000, 2004 Olympics
At the 2000 Olympics, Benko was a team captain and member of the USA's gold-medal-winning 4×200-meter freestyle relay. She had an individual time in her leg of the 4x200 relay of 1:59.34, and the U.S. team's combined time set an Olympic record.

Serving again as the U.S. team captain, four years later at the 2004 Olympics, she earned a second gold medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay and took a silver in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

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.

1998, 2003, World Aquatics medals
In the World Aquatics Championships, in 1998 in Perth, Australia, she won a silver in the 4x200 Medley Freestyle relay. In 2003 Worlds, she won a gold in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay in Barcelona, as well as in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay. She also won a silver in the 4x100 medley relay.

She was the holder of a world record in short-course for the 400-meter free with a time of 3:59.53 from January 2003 to December 2005.

5 Pan Pacific gold medals
In 1997, 1999, and 2002, she won four gold medals in the 100 and 200-meter freestyle relays in the Pan Pacifics, and one in the individual 200-meter freestyle.

Acting career
In 2000, Benko played herself in an episode of The Jersey called "Sophomore Year." 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 2006-2017.

During her service on the National Team staff, U.S. swimmers received a total of 95 medals spanning the Olympics in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and captured an additional 177 appearances on podiums in swimming competitions in long-course FINA World Championships from around 2012-2017.

Managing director, U.S. National Team Division
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 still held as of 2023, 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.

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.