by Irvin Muchnick
The publisher of Swimming World magazine has confirmed that he recently called USA Swimming to check on a tip that the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided swimming’s Colorado Springs headquarters last Tuesday, October 7.
Let’s be clear that this was a wild rumor. There has been no FBI raid. Concussion Inc., however, finds it interesting that other news outlets put high-level effort into checking on – and ultimately debunking – false reports that have nothing to do with our coverage, and do not report the basics: that major developments are expected shortly in the probes of USA Swimming sexual abuse and cover-up by both the FBI and Congressman George Miller, ranking minority member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
In an email exchange yesterday, Swimming World publisher Brent Rutemiller told me, “I only got involved because we were short of staff that day and my lead editor was off. We track down all leads and many are dead end stories. This was one of them. Our inquiry was specific in nature and had nothing to do with your reports on other investigations.” Rutemiller called the info that the FBI had conducted a raid “a bogus tip.”
USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus and spokesperson Scott Leightman did not respond to our email query.
Sources inside USA Swimming described Wielgus as furiously angry at Swimming World’s inquiry. But Rutemiller denied that anyone in the office “berated” him for making his call.