http:\/\/missoulian.com\/news\/local\/missoula-swimming-coach-berkoff-says-criticism-is-unfair\/article_02329f42-caf9-11e2-8e54-0019bb2963f4.html<\/a>.<\/p>\nBerkoff says he is himself a survivor of child abuse, and for that he deserves sympathy. (I may be wrong, but I believe this is the first time he has stated as much so openly and publicly; it is strongly hinted in one of his depositions in a civil suit against USA Swimming.)<\/p>\n
But Berkoff’s defense of his good faith as the reformist technical vice president of USA Swimming doesn’t hold water.<\/p>\n
He tells his hometown paper that blaming him for long-known rapist coach Rick Curl’s presence on the deck at the 2012 Olympic Trials — which prompted victim Kelley Davies Currin to come forward — is like “blaming the governor for a bad striping job on the highway.”<\/p>\n
Berkoff says he was a spectator at the Trials. “… I see Rick Curl walking down the pool deck and I turned to my wife and said, ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ I was just as shocked as Kelley Currin was about that.”<\/p>\n
Like Captain Renault in Casablanca<\/em>, Berkoff was “shocked, shocked!” And proceeded to do nothing.<\/p>\nThe ongoing crimes of our national swimming program transcend Berkoff’s colossal vanity and institutional framing. There are calls for a Congressional investigation, and there is already an investigation by the FBI.<\/p>\n
Some day in the future, “over beers” with fellow Hall of Fame swimmer Pablo Morales, or over cocktails at the Harvard Club, I look forward to further fantastical anecdotes from Vice President Berkoff on how the solutions ran through him.<\/p>\n
NEXT: Complete links to Concussion Inc.’s coverage of David Berkoff.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Irv Muchnick<\/em>
\ntips@muchnick.net<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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