Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Outside Magazine has two articles up regarding USA Swimming's child abuse problems and they are summarily quite chilling!


Anna Strzempko raped at 13-years-old by her Coach recalled this chilling horror for Outside Magazine...
From the Outside Magazine article "Unprotected":

“‘Don’t cry Anna. Didn’t you say I am like a father to you? (smack, blood in my ear) You have all those boyfriends anyways. I want to keep you focused on swimming.’ I am thirteen and in a private discussion with my coach that was set up after nationals. Ripping pain, grunts that sound like the monster in a horror movie, blood, my hair pulled out lying on the ground, the smell of fear. It smells like fresh chlorine and metal.”

[Link]
To throw more attention onto this subject they added a second article which is a rogue's gallery of USA Swimming's worst criminals:
"... From Outside Magazine: "...Of the 108 people on USA Swimming’s list of individuals banned from the sport, at least 90 were banned for sexual misconduct. Of those, more than 50 have been arrested, charged, or convicted in connection with those crimes. As we reported in our December 2014 feature, the majority of the offenders were allowed to continue coaching for years, despite their misconduct—until 2010, when media exposure forced USA Swimming’s hand and the organization began publishing a list of banned coaches. Over the past three months, Outside examined public records, court documents, and media accounts to shine a light on what 26 of these individuals did. Here’s what we found. ..."
[Link]
 When you read both of these articles, ask yourself what kind of non-profit organization allows an executive director (Chuck Wielgus) to take home nearly $1-million in salary per year and get away with such failures and coverups?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well written article. You're right "quite chilling"!

"Strzempko and others have described this process - without exaggeration - as being as emotionally devastating as rape".