Four Safe and Independent Ways to Keep Reporting Sex Abuse and Cover-Up in USA Swimming During the Holiday Break
Oregon State Coach Liebowitz Doesn’t Just Know a Lot About That State’s Swimming Sex Abuse Scandals — He’s Also Privy to Important Info on the Cover-Up History of Rapist Hall of Famer Paul Bergen
December 19, 2013ESPN’s Greg Winslow Coach-From-Hell Story Inexplicably Not Tied to Congressional Investigation of USA Swimming
December 24, 2013Tomorrow ESPN’s Outside the Lines will air a package on Greg Winslow, the University of Utah swim coach who was fired in March after Concussion Inc. reported that Arizona State University police were recommending his indictment for earlier molesting a mid-teens club swimmer at the Sun Devil Aquatics club on the ASU campus. The prosecutor later declined to take those charges before a grand jury, but ESPN covers the stories of the alleged victim, Whitney Lopus, who briefly followed Winslow to Utah and now has a pending civil lawsuit against him and Sun Devil Aquatics, and of the cover-up of Winslow’s wide-ranging misconduct at Utah.
This welcome new attention to the national disgrace of coach sex abuse reminds us that perhaps the most fervent holiday wish of the Colorado Springs operatives of USA Swimming is that the American public will use this interlude to forget all about Rick Curl, Mitch Ivey, Paul Bergen, and the scores of others who have damaged the lives of countless hundreds of youth athletes for a generation — and in many cases continue to do so — thanks to the avarice, negligence, and sometimes direct participation of the very leadership charged with preventing such outrages.
To those of you out there sitting on information, our counter-message is this: Do not cut these criminals a Christmas break.
Anyone in legitimate fear of exposing himself or herself to public ridicule or private retaliation for coming forward needs to know that there are several safe and discreet ways to do the right thing:
Call the Los Angeles office of the FBI. The number is 310.477.6565. Ask for special agent Randall Devine.
Contact Congressman George Miller, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. You can use any of the contact methods at https://georgemiller.house.gov/contact-me. Or you can directly email committee staffers Michael Zola ([email protected]) or Scott Groginsky ([email protected]).
Communiate via Safe4Athletes, the new organization of former Olympic swimmer Katherine Starr, herself an abuse survivor. See http://safe4athletes.org/resources/contact-us.
Email Concussion Inc.’s Irv Muchnick and Tim Joyce at [email protected].
We wish a happy holiday season to all.