New Fort Lauderdale Documents: Sun-Sentinel Swimming Writer Offered Alex Pussieldi Help in Preventing 2004 Assault Report From Getting ‘Out of Hand’
March 22, 2014Miami Herald, National Swimming Media Contributed to Legend and USA Swimming Cover-Up of Coach Alex Pussieldi
March 23, 2014
Yesterday we published a document from Fort Lauderdale government public records showing that the swimming beat reporter for the Sun-Sentinel, Sharon Robb, helped direct monster coach Alex Pussieldi’s rehabilitation from a 2004 criminal complaint that he physically assaulted one of his swimmers at the municipal aquatic complex.
A decade later into Pussieldi’s coaching career (which still might not have ended, though he did announce his “retirement” last July) is the never-media-reported, never-refuted, multiply-witnessed allegations that he secretly videotaped the undressing in bathrooms of swimmers in his charge and living in his house, some of whom were his legal wards from other countries. Pussieldi was also credibly accused of keeping motion-picture selfies of his sex acts with underage boys.
Concussion Inc. still awaits word one from Robb regarding any of this. We also would like to give another nudge to Sun-Sentinel publisher Howard Greenburg and editor Howard Saltz to explain whether their newspaper’s mission includes stuffing a story concerning youth athlete safety, “in case this gets out of hand.”
As noted earlier, Robb was inducted in 2000 into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The shrine is in the same Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex where Pussieldi and the Mexican swimmer would fight on deck four years later. The first sentence of the hall’s citation of her “Al Schoenfield Media Award” reads, “Sharon Robb is a born and raised Florida ‘cracker’ who has spent 30 years as a sports writer covering many sports.”
Last year Robb, who is retired from the Sun-Sentinel, added two more high honors to her portfolio: the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame and the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame.
She apparently still writes for PhelpsSports.com, an equestrian news site, and flacks for the Pembroke Pines-based South Florida Aquatic Club.
Next here: Some other media types who shouldn’t wait by their phones for Pulitzer Prizes for their Alex Pussieldi coverage. Complete links to Concussion Inc.’s Pussieldi investigation are at https://concussioninc.net/?p=8652.