US Olympic Swimmers spend countless hours with their coaches: clocking their speed, perfecting their style of swimming and advancing their craft in an effort to win the gold medal. Unbeknownst to family, friends and loyal swimming fans something tragic was happening and kept a secret. Girls as young as 11 are being molested by the people they trust with their careers and passion the most, their coaches.
Dena Dearduff an Olympic swimmer was touched by her coach for 4 years and the touching began at 11 years old. She admitted she knew it wasn't right but didn't know there was a word for the misconduct that her coach was partaking in on. She never said a word until her later adult years.
Andrew King was an US Olympic swim coach, he trained dozen of girls around the west coast of the US. They believe his molestation with girls began in the 1960's. Some parents believed he was touching girls, but they never spoke out on it and King told the girls if they said something they wouldn't be able to swim anymore. Finally and girl spoke out 14 year of age. He is now sentenced to 40 plus years in jail.
There have be 36 coaches to be caught in the sexual misconduct and most are now in prison severing time. When accepted into the US Olympic Coaching committee, coaches background checks only consist of checking for any criminal history like time spent in jail.There is no investigation on how the parents felt or calling up there previous work employers to hear what they have to say about the coach.
I feel as though this is a sad issues. Preying on children who are so focused on their dream that the coaches know they will do anything, to make it all the way to the gold. Coaches have began to speak out on the coaching committees and are now being investigated, the committee wants to keep the issue a secret and not bring it to the light anymore than it already is. fear of losing sponsors and good reputation.
Why are so many coaches turning to their young student for sex not only in the swimming community, but a scandal just surfaced about Jerry Sandusky at Penn State and Syracuse assistant basketball coach fired for molesting three boys. Its sad that these coaches do not realize how many they are hurting themselves and their families and the victim and their family. How can this every be prevented? Will this sexual misconduct stop or will the cycle continue?
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/sexual-misconduct-us-swimming-10337006
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1129/Syracuse-sex-scandal-Head-coach-Jim-Boeheim-to-break-his-silence-Tuesday
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/swim-coachs-secret-tapes-10331100
This is a very good subject to talk about. These kind of people just disgust me. Coaches and other people in authority positions are supposed to be people that we can trust. Parents trust them to supervise their children, and then years later, they find out that the coach they trusted with their child was violating and molesting them. It says that he was sentenced to 40 years, but he probably won't end up serving all of that. In my opinion, those people should be locked up for life.
ReplyDeleteThis is a interesting topic, and the people who do this are very sick. Just like scott said these are coaches that kids are suppose to trust and look up to, these kids want their coaches to be proud of them. For them to molest and violate these child's are just horrifying. These people need to be in jail for life because they are sick and twisted individuals. I just don't understand why people enjoy molesting children, what is the satisfaction in that, there nasty people who should not be in our society. I feel like a coach or somebody that wants to deal with kids should have a thorough investigation on them and extensive background checks before they are even considered to be hired.
ReplyDeleteMore and more coaches are getting caught doing this and it's a shame. This kind of conduct has been happening since the beginning of time (especially in Ancient Rome) and it doesn't look like it's going to stop now. Creeps like this guy are always going to find new ways to get what they want; so in all actuality it will never stop. We as a society just need to be proactive against sex offenders like this and make sure we cut down on the number of victims that there might be.
ReplyDeleteThis is so weird, in one of my classes we just watched a 20/20 video on this case dealing with Dena Deardruff and other swimmers. It is hard to believe that coaches would make such advances on kids who have such high dreams. I guess it is more common than I thought to have coaches making these progressions onto kids. These coaches are supposed to make the kids the best athlete they can be and they are being groomed into thinking it is normal or that they won’t be able to swim anymore. No wonder why kids didn’t come forward. The 14 year old child who did come forward was awfully brave and because of her, there will hopefully be more in depth investigations behind these coaches.
ReplyDeleteNice post first time hearing about the swimming situation. Sadly i don't think this problem will ever stop. It seems as if every year a new scandal about this is coming out. i think one way to help the situation is to give parents more access to things such as practice or team meetings. I coached 7th and 8th graders in football 2 years ago; and although football is very different then other sports because the area for practice is a wide open field. we still had parents watching us every day and we also had team moms that were present for everything to make sure the kids are safe.
ReplyDeleteIts unfortunate that people in these situations take advantage of others. Coaches are people who are supposed to be responsible, and someone to look up to. It seems that no matter what kind of supervision we put on coaches this situation keeps coming up, on any sporting level. I think that its hard for kids to come forwards, especially younger ones, and thats why a lot of these cases go unheard.
ReplyDeleteThese coaches are supposed to make the kids the best athlete they can be and they are being groomed into thinking it is normal or that they won’t be able to swim anymore. No wonder why kids didn’t come forward.sex coaching
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