Amended Lawsuit Filed Alleging Widespread Abuse Within USA Swimming; USA Swimming Releases Statement

SAN JOSE, California, March 19 SAN JOSE attorney B. Robert Allard alleges widespread abuse within USA Swimming in an amended lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

According to an article written by Linda Goldston of the San Jose Mercury News, Allard, represents 1972 Olympic gold medal swimmer Deena Deardurff Schmidt, and a 15-year-old San Jose girl who was abused by Andrew King. They are scheduled to discuss allegations against coaches and officials of the national body for swimming in the United States at a news conference this morning.

Andrew King who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing girls he coached in the South Bay and the East Bay of the San Jose area earlier this year.

Since 1993, at least 32 coaches, at swim clubs around the country, allegedly abused their swimmers, the complaint states, adding that the list was not "all inclusive," wrote Goldston. The Mercury News documented abuse by King dating back to the 1980s. Each time, adults knew or were told about the abuse but did not take action about it.

There are too many victims in this case for USA Swimming to look the other way," said attorney Robert Allard. "USA Swimming must be held accountable for their hiring practices and they must change the way that coaches with access to young children are screened and investigated," added Allard. "This is a wake up call for all youth athletic leagues to be pro-active and diligent in the way they investigate the backgrounds of coaches who are teaching our children," stated Allard in an earlier article.

The suit seeks unspecified damages against King, San Jose Aquatics, Pacific Swimming (the West Coast branch of USA Swimming) and USA Swimming.

USA Swimming released the following statement:

As a youth organization, the safety and well-being of our members is paramount and USA Swimming takes allegations of coach misconduct very seriously.

We have several layers of protection in place to protect our athletes from inappropriate behavior, and we are continuously evaluating these policies to ensure a safe, positive environment for our 300,000 members.

These policies are as follows:
Every coach member or prospective coach member must pass a comprehensive background screen as a condition of membership.

Our code of conduct prohibits abusive behavior including, but not limited to, inappropriate sexual activity.

We have a reporting system in place to register complaints and an internal hearing body to reviews these complaints and expel members in the case that an abuse does occur.

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