Eighteen Former Swimmers Sue University of California over Teri McKeever Abuse

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Eighteen Former Swimmers Sue University of California over Teri McKeever Abuse

Eighteen former swimmers are suing the University of California regents over what they allege is decades of abuse by former Cal swim coach Teri McKeever.

The group includes Olympic gold medalist Cierra Runge (now Cierra Burnell) among a group of 11 Olympic Trials qualifiers and seven NCAA All-Americans. The suit was first reported by Southern California News Group, which surfaced allegations of bullying, intimidation and emotional and psychological abuse by McKeever last year. McKeever was placed on leave, then fired in January.

The lawsuit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court on Monday, SCNG reported. It cites wrongdoing by McKeever dating back to 1994, two years after she was hired by Cal and before she won four NCAA titles and was named the head coach of the U.S. women’s national team at the 2012 Olympics.

One allegation, put forward by New Zealand international swimmer and plaintiff Sophia Batchelor, was that McKeever, “on an almost daily basis, subjected her to verbal, emotional and physical abuse, pressured her to take a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and to swim and compete while injured, body shamed her, and required her to file weekly food reports.”

Batchelor reported incidents to athletic department staff at Cal, but the actions led to nothing, in addition to retaliation by McKeever. Batchelor said she left Berkeley with panic attacks, anxiety and depression, being hospitalized while suffering from suicidal ideation.

“As students and recruited athletes at Cal Berkeley, my clients relied on the UC Regents to ensure their safety and wellbeing,” said Kelsey L. Campbell, an attorney for the swimmers. “The UC Regents failed by allowing Coach McKeever to engage in abusive coaching practices for nearly thirty years. The UC Regents were on notice of Coach McKeever’s propensity for abusive coaching practices and failed to supervise or educate her on proper behavior.

“Bringing suit against one’s university takes extraordinary courage. My clients are taking this step as they are committed to ensuring that other student-athletes not have to suffer as they did.”

McKeever was fired in January after an eight-month investigation into her conduct. That investigation was conducted by athletic director Jim Knowlton, who himself is reportedly the subject of an investigation into the university’s handling of complaints into McKeever’s conduct. Many of those reports made their way back to the coach and were used against swimmers, as has been alleged by numerous athletes, in both the court filing and in interviews with SCNG over the last year. Also cited in the investigation is Jennifer Simon-O’Neill, who served as call’s Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator. Simon-O’Neill, who has McKeever as the godmother of one of her children, was removed from oversight of the women’s swimming and diving team last May when allegations of McKeever’s behavior first surfaced.

McKeever continue to maintain that she is a victim of “bias-driven complaints” by swimmers.

Read the full report from SCNG here.

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Paul Bready

11 months ago

Ridiculous ! Coaches have always been aggressive in pushing their athletes !

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