In the Matter of Alex Pussieldi’s Status in Brazil, There’s Precedent for Sanctioning a National Swimming Federation

The full Alex Pussieldi story is told in Chapter 9, “Sex, Lies, and Alex Pussieldi,” of the new book UNDERWATER: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and Around the Globe.

PREVIOUSLY:

“Alex Pussieldi — Swimming Coach Driven out of Florida after Allegations of Trafficking and Sexual Abuse — Announces a Tour of Clinics in Brazil, Sponsored by Speedo,” November 29, https://concussioninc.net/?p=15974

“Speedo Disavows Sponsorship of Alex Pussieldi’s Brazilian Swimming Clinics, Says Endorsement Made ‘Without Authorization’,” November 29, https://concussioninc.net/?p=15990

“The Questions USA Swimming Must Answer about Exiled Abuser Coach Alex Pussieldi — Now a Sport Powerbroker Back in Brazil,” November 30, https://concussioninc.net/?p=15994

by Irvin Muchnick

As activists, talking with Concussion Inc., put heat on Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos (CBDA), the governing body of aquatic sports in Brazil, and on Confederación Sudamericana de Natación (CONSANAT), the body covering all of South America (of which, according to Pussieldi, he is “communications coordinator”), it’s important to note that international swimming authorities do, from time to time, hold the groups under their umbrella accountable for various lapses.

For example, the World Aquatics Bureau (previously known by the acronym FINA and now as AQUA Bureau) just recently expelled the Mexican Swimming Federation.

As reported by SwimSwam in this article, https://swimswam.com/world-aquatics-expels-mexican-swimming-federation-creates-committee-to-recognize-new-group/, the move “comes after years of turmoil in the federation and an attempt to stabilize the existing federation.” The Mexican group was first suspended in 2016 for withdrawing as hosts of the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. “That was the beginning of a long saga that saw the former president of the Mexican Swimming Federation Kiril Todorov suspended earlier this year while under investigation for embezzlement and repeated failure … to comply with FINA’s good standards.” This included defying a provisional suspension.

Alex Pussiedi’s ongoing prominence in CBDA and CONSANAT – via years of consulting arrangements, as well as a newly announced national tour of clinics in his native Brazil – flies in the face of his own “indefinite suspension” more than a decade ago by USA Swimming’s regional affiliate, Florida Gold Coast Swimming.

Though his cited violations in the early 2010s involved falsified meet entries for international swimmers listed, on and off, on the roster of his Nadadores club in Davie, Florida, the root narrative of the illegal competitive advantage he attained there as a result derived from allegations of sexual abuse and trafficking, as documented in both local police reports and a USA Swimming investigation.

But no matter how you categorize the Pussieldi infractions in Florida, the principle of reciprocity in honoring bans of bad actor coaches across national borders is important. It’s important for the safety of youth athletes and it’s important for concepts of a level competitive playing field (or pool). That was precisely why AQUA took action against the Mexican Swimming Federation. In Brazil, the record of Pussieldi’s past technical fraud – hundreds upon hundreds of meet entries of “ringers” – is compounded by the current controversial sponsorship of Pussieldi’s clinics by a former licensee of Speedo. The multinational company holding the trademark on this iconic swimwear brand has won a Brazilian court ruling that Speedo Multisport is acting illegally there in its appropriation of the Speedo name.

Meanwhile, USA Swimming continues — all the way up to interim CEO Shana Ferguson — to refuse to answer our questions about Pussieldi, including whether it ever internally “flagged” the coach as undesirable following the full revelation of his Peeping Tom scandal, exposed in the aftermath of his 2004 assault of a Mexican swimmer on the pool deck of the International Swimming Hall of Fame complex in Fort Lauderdale. Those facts, leaning into the reporting at Concussion Inc. by Tim Joyce and myself, became the basis of a 2014 cover story in the weekly Miami New Times chain. In turn, it was part of the surrounding discussion of the decision that year by the International Swimming Hall of Fame to cancel the induction of the late USA Swimming chief executive, Chuck Wielgus.