It’s SME Again – Going for the Gold! How One Olympic Coach Uses Business Travel to Win.

On episode 3 of this 4-part series we learn how travel can turn to Gold.  Hosts Amy Thiessen and Greg Bell chat with 3-time Gold-medal winning coach of the US Women's Water Polo team, Adam Krikorian.  Adam has a nearly perfect record with the team, and we learn that travel, particularly transformational travel, has been a key ingredient to his success - especially a team retreat to Colorado with 7-days of silence! 

Adam Krikorian has been coaching the Senior National US Women’s Water Polo Team since 2009 and has been just about perfect. Team USA has competed in 23 major FINA Championships since his arrival and has come away with Gold in 20 of them. This includes the last 3 Olympic Games, the last 4 FINA World Championships, the 2010, 2014, and 2018 FINA World Cups, and 10 FINA World League Super Final crowns. 

As Head coach at UCLA, Krikorian earned National Women's Water Polo Coach of the Year honors five times.  He also received National Men's Coach of the Year honors in 2004 after leading the UCLA men's program to its eighth overall NCAA championship. He guided the women's team to eight national championships, including a string of five consecutive titles.   

GBTA’s Sports, Media & Entertainment committee (SME) currently has 20 committee members from high-level positions within the travel community. Our buyers represent many of the leading sports, media and companies in the world, from professional sports teams and leagues, players associations, movie studios, film production companies, music labels, and so on. On the supplier side we also have top reps from the major travel companies from the airlines, lodging, ground transportation.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s largest professional association representing the $1.4 trillion business travel industry. Our global membership includes 9,000-plus business travel professionals from every continent. Collectively, our members directly control more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually, and also represent every facet of the global travel industry marketplace.

The goal of the SME podcast is to leave you with up to date insights and relevant, actionable guidance.