USA Swimming Reportedly Ignored Or Concealed 100s Of Cases Of Sexual Abuse

By David Adams

A landmark report on the internal culture of USA Swimming (USAS) claims the organisation’s leaders were aware of sexually abusive coaches within its ranks but either ignored them or refused to act, enabling the careers of many accused paedophiles and exposing hundreds of young athletes to further abuse.

Citing a trove of legal documents and internal memos from USAS, The Orange County Register claims the organisation’s upper echelons repeatedly refused to take definitive disciplinary action against known abusers over fears it could lose prestige and high-profile corporate sponsorships.

One passage alleges “Top USA Swimming executives, board members, top officials and coaches acknowledge in the documents that they were aware of sexually predatory coaches for years, in some cases even decades, but did not take action against them.”

Documents show that former executive director Chuck Wielgus didn’t take action against some coaches even when presented with “direct complaints” of abuse.

252 coaches / at least 590 children

The Orange County Register states at least 252 coaches or officials have been arrested, charged, or internally disciplined by USAS in the past two decades for abusing those under the age of 18. Those individuals alone are alleged to have abused at least 590 children, some of them in pre-school classes.

But USAS also kept a record of coaches and officials “flagged” for being accused of child abuse offences by law enforcement agencies who were not internally disciplined; of 32 coaches on the list in 2010, only six were subsequently banned by USAS over the abuse.

The list of “flagged” individuals is also not available to the public, and some abusers are not even present on the “flagged” list.

The paper illustrates the issue with a particularly galling example. In 1996, USAS was alerted by law enforcement officials that coach Norm Havercroft had allegedly abused underaged swimmers. In 1997, Havercroft allegedly began abusing 15-year-old Jancy Thompson. In 2001, USAS was again notified of the allegations made against him. Thompson reached an out-of-court settlement with Havercroft in 2014.

However, Havercroft does not appear on the USAS list of coaches banned for life. Internal documents reveal that despite top USAS officials being aware of Havercroft’s alleged abuse, the organisation has never moved forward with internal disciplinary action.

The report also includes details pertaining to lobbying firms hired by USAS to push back on legislation that would have made it easier for abuse victims to seek compensation.

Those are only a few of the accusations put forward in the report, which draws parallels to the detestable actions of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar – and the alleged inaction of USA Gymnastics itself. 

This is disgraceful. There needs to be a full inquiry.

Stanford Sex Assault Convict Banned from USA Swimming for Life

staff@people.com (Dave Quinn)

Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party in 2015, has been banned for life by USA Swimming, the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. 

USA Today reports that the 20-year-old is not currently a member of USA Swimming but had been prior to his membership expiring in 2014, and that the governing body said he would "not be eligible" should he apply again for membership. 

"Had he been a member, he would be subject to the USA Swimming Code of Conduct," USA Swimming spokesperson Scott Leightman told the news outlet. "USA Swimming strictly prohibits and has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, with firm Code of Conduct policies in place, and severe penalties, including a permanent ban of membership, for those who violate our Code of Conduct." 

This decision, which I applaud, will help ameliorate the judges remarkably light sentence. It should send a message, which the judge failed to do, that rape has consequences for the rapist too.

Leightman also said that Turner was not a member of USA Swimming at the time of the assault in January 2015.

"Brock Turner's membership with USA Swimming expired at the end of the calendar year 2014," he wrote. "He was not a member at the time of his crime or since then. USA Swimming doesn't have any jurisdiction over non-members."

In a statement given to Judge Aaron Persky prior to his conviction, Turner lamented at the end of his swimming career, saying "I've lost my chance to swim in the Olympics."

"I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford," he added.

Don't blame it on the swimming or Stanford; you made the decision to rape an unconscious girl. You ought to wish that you had better morals.

Turner also blamed alcohol and the college drinking culture for his actions in his statement. "I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone," he wrote. "But I never ever meant to intentionally hurt [the victim]. My poor decision making and excessive drinking hurt someone that night and I wish I could just take it all back."

"Before this happened, I never had any trouble with law enforcement and I plan on maintaining that. I've been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school," the statement continues.

Turner's victim, who has chosen to remain anonymous, gained national attention when her 12-page victim impact statement went viral. In it, she addresses her assaulter's swimming scholarship.

"How fast Brock swims does not lessen the severity of what happened to me, and should not lessen the severity of his punishment," she wrote. "If a first time offender from an underprivileged background was accused of three felonies and displayed no accountability for his actions other than drinking, what would his sentence be? The fact that Brock was an athlete at a private university should not be seen as an entitlement to leniency, but as an opportunity to send a message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class." 

Turner admitted to the sexual contact but maintained it was consensual. Although prosecutors asked Turner be sentenced to six years in prison, he was given six months, with Judge Persky saying a longer sentence would have a "severe impact on him." He can be released in as little as three months. 

Well, '20 minutes of action' has already had a severe impact on his victim and probably will for many years to come. Men/boys in college don't seem to realize that rape is not only illegal, but that it is very damaging to the victim. Colleges don't seem to be selling this message. Colleges don't seem to be doing very much of anything to combat the culture of rape.

The ruling was met with outrage from those who thought it was too lenient. (Prosecutors had asked for a six years.) More than 1 million people have signed a Change.org petition asking for the removal of Judge Persky, who was given a new six-year judicial term on Tuesday. 

Many have also criticized Turner's father, Dan Turner, who penned a letter begging the judge for leniency for his son prior to sentencing.

"These verdicts have broken and shattered him and our family in so many ways." he wrote. "His life will never be the one he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. This is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life."

Does the dad even know there was a victim?