Underwater: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and Around the Globe

USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, has a sordid history of looking the other way when coaches sexually abuse athletes, according to this searing report. Detailing how abusers evade accountability, journalist Muchnick (Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads) describes how after national team director Everett Uchiyama’s sexual abuse of a 16-year-old athlete came to light in 2006, USA Swimming club development director Pat Hogan, who was himself the subject of a sexual assault complaint in the 1980s, kept the scandal quiet and helped the coach secure a cushy position as a country club aquatics director. The stories of abuse survivors make clear that such underhanded dealings have long been unwritten policy at USA Swimming. For instance, Muchnick discusses how Sarah Ehekircher, who was raped by her high school coach in the 1980s, was among the first athletes to file a complaint with USA Swimming’s Safe Sport department, which dismissed Ehekircher’s allegations after a perfunctory hearing. Former USA Swimming director Chuck Wielgus comes in for particular opprobrium for hiring a lobbying firm in 2013 to defeat a California bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims. The subject matter makes for grim reading, but the abhorrent institutional wrongdoing Muchnick uncovers deserves to be widely known. This will make waves. (Sept.)