Monday, June 02, 2014

Orlando Sentinel weighs in on the stupidity of admitting Chuck Wielgus in the International Swimming Hall of Fame

Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming, Lies to ESPN from evasquez on Vimeo.



Above is a letter from Chuck Wielgus telling a colleague via his USA Swimming email account to keep quiet about a sexual abuse complaint sent directly to Wielgus demanding that Coach Andrew King be investigated for abusing young girls such as herself. USA Swimming refused to do so, the "coach" went on to abuse other young girls before getting caught and sent to prison for life. 

Olympian Nancy Hogshead's petition along with 19-other-victims of sexual molestation has exceeded over 500-signatures since May 29th. This petition seeks to bar Chuck Wilegus from being inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The petition is located here at Change.org - By signing it you will make a difference, a statement, an a blow to coach on athlete pedophilia. Sign it now!: [Link]

From George Diaz and the Orlando Sentinel:
"...No one is accusing Wielgus of sexual abuse. But they are adamant that he is an enabler. It's a story that resonates with the same themes as the Penn State scandal and the recurring nightmare of predatory priests coddled by the Catholic Church:

Those in position of power at USA Swimming did nothing to protect the victims nor stop the abuse. Instead, they failed to responded properly when allegations came to light, and protected the abusers with confidential settlements, weak background checks or re-assignments.

The USA Swimming Board of Directors refutes the claims of the petition, going on the defensive in much the same way it did in 2010 when an ABC News "20/20" investigation found that coaches had molested, fondled and abused dozens of young swimmers.

That report also included a speech that Wielgus gave to coaches in 2009, secretly taped, in which he says of abuse allegations against coaches: "This happens almost every week. ... One of my greatest fears is that someone is going to start linking all this together."

Your fears are confirmed, Mr. Wielgus. Good luck trying to explain it all away. ..." 
[Link]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is USA Swimming expected to stop or prevent this kind of abuse? They don't run local swim clubs. This is a local law enforcement matter. Stop dragging USA Swimming into swim clubs' failures.

Tony Austin said...


Well, the Congress, the FBI and the sexually abused victims feel differently.

If you were told by a victim that they were sexually abused, you would call the police right? (I have.) USA Swimming when informed and knew of pedophile coaches in their ranks did nothing, NOTHING!

I am honored that I had a hand in getting USA Swimming to clean up it's act. When the producer of ABC's news program 20/20 contacted me I gave her all the information she needed to do the story on this subject. It was this program that brought that organization (Along with Bob Allard) to its knees and did something to clean up it's act.

I have no respect for Wiegus, I think he is a "Little Caesar" who did not do the right thing by "falling on his sword" and resigning so the organization could reboot and implement some real reforms.