USADA Chief Travis Tygart’s Conflict in Case of Bolles School Sex-Abusing Coach Danny Chocron Is Worse Than We Knew

by Irvin Muchnick

We’ve been reporting the overdue sanction in Venezuela of coach Danny Chocron, who in 2001 had jumped $250,000 bail on 14 criminal counts of the sex abuse of teen female and male swimmers he supervised.

We’ve also lit a verbal match to the clay feet of Travis Tygart, the holier-than-thou head of the national Olympic committee’s U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. But it turns out that Tygart’s conflict of interest in managing the Chocron case in an earlier position as a lawyer for USA Swimming is a magnitude more egregious than we previously knew.

In the latest puff piece on Tygart, fearless slayer of the dragon performance-enhancing drug user cyclist Lance Armstrong, the Times-Union of Jacksonville, Florida — home of Chocron and Tygart’s Bolles prep school — notes that Tygart not only is an alumnus of Bolles. Tygart also coached in the Bolles athletic department before going to law school:

“After graduating from Bolles in 1989, Tygart earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and returned home to teach and coach for several years at Bolles.”

See “Jacksonville native Travis Tygart, who led Armstrong investigation, on another crusade to clean up sports,” http://jacksonville.com/sports/2017-11-10/jacksonville-native-travis-tygart-who-led-armstrong-investigation-another-crusade.

What remains unclear is whether Florida Times-Union writer Phillip Heilman was unaware of Tygart’s role in USA Swimming sex abuse cover-ups generally, or in not publicizing Chocron’s flight from justice in particular; or Heilman knew and chose not to raise the topic in his interview with Tygart.

Heilman has not responded to our query. Concussion Inc. will be following up with Heilman and Times-Union sports editor Chet Fussman.

PREVIOUSLY:

Danny Chocron — Coach Who Jumped Bail on Florida Sex Abuse Charges — Was Sanctioned by Venezuelan Swimming Federation After Concussion Inc.’s Reports

Published November 15th, 2017
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USA Swimming Papers: FBI Documented Future USOC Drug Czar Travis Tygart Enabling Flight to Venezuela of Criminal Sex Abuser at His Alma Mater

Published March 7th, 2017
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How the USA Swimming Sexual Abuse Scandals Became a Federal Case

Published October 7th, 2014
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U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Head Travis Tygart’s Cover-Ups of Sex Abuse at USA Swimming: Complete Links

Published October 20th, 2017