USA Swimming Has Internal “Flagged” List As Well as “Banned” List; USA Swimming Releases Explanation

USA Swimming only has jurisdiction over its members. However, because we are committed to doing whatever we can to keep accused predators from being members of our organization, we have embraced the practice of "flagging" records of former members when we become aware of complaints against them (whether the complaint is about something that allegedly happened before, during or long after their membership in our organization).

This gives us a tool for identifying these individuals, should they attempt to become members of our organization in the future. Should they try, their computerized member record would immediately indicate that they would be ineligible for membership until they had a full hearing to find out if they had engaged in misconduct that would make them ineligible for membership.

Since the highest penalty available to a youth sports organization is revoking membership, "Flagging" their membership record used to be the only course of action available to USA Swimming.

However, now that USA Swimming has published the "Suspended for Life" list – (an action taken by only one other youth organization — USA Gymnastics) – we have a course of disciplinary action against non-members. For this reason, at Tuesday's Board meeting USA Swimming committed to contacting these former-members with complaints against them, and offering a hearing to determine if they should be added to the "Suspended-for-life" list. Those that decline the hearing will automatically be added to the list. Those who accept the offer will go through the investigation and review process to determine if they should be added to the "Suspended-for-Life" list.