Congratulations, Diana Nyad — World-Class Athlete and Abuse Survivor
Orange County Register: ‘USA Swimming works to contain sex-abuse scandals’
August 31, 2013Maryland Parent: University Regents Should Discuss Derek Sheely’s Death and Safety in College Sports. Governor O’Malley Should Join Them.
September 2, 2013On her fifth try, at age 64, Diana Nyad has completed the 110-mile Havana-to-Key West swim through the Straits of Florida. Awesome.
What we haven’t yet written about is that Nyad, whose long and celebrated aquatics career speaks for itself, is one more survivor of youth coach sexual abuse. She has credibly accused Jack Nelson — former Olympic swimmer, coach of the 1976 American women’s Olympic swimming team, and a Hall of Famer. Now 81, Nelson presumably is on USA Swimming’s “flagged” list of unofficially undergrounded industry figures.
This week, as a Congressional investigation of swimming’s generation of coach molestation and cover-up gets its footing, Concussion Inc. will launch a new series on the systematic big-money private interests behind these abhorrent stories of predatory coaches and exploited girl and young-women athletes.
Keep your eye out for “USA Swimming’s Multimillion-Dollar International Sex Abuse Insurance Scam.”
Irv Muchnick