Looks like the same old story reported for the sport of gymnastics and USA Gymnastics a couple years ago, now for swimming, and the national organization USA Swimming... ABC News 20/20 will be airing an investigative story by Brian Bross called "Inside USA Swimming: Secrets and Betrayal" at 10pm on Friday April 9. Brief segment also at 5:30pm during World News with Diane Sawyer. Former swim coach over 30 years and serial child molestor, Andrew "Andy" King, 61, has been convicted of raping young swimmers earlier this year in a California courtroom, pleading no contest last fall to 20 child molestation charges. He was sentenced to 49 years in prison. There are allegations that the national organization USA Swimming has not protected the children adequately. [QUOTE] King coached the Aquajets swim team at the North Whidbey Park and Recreation swimming pool in Oak Harbor during the 1990s, then left mysteriously amid complaints about his contact with female swimmers. A couple of years later, one of the Oak Harbor swimmers reported that King had molested and raped her from 1994 to 1997, when she was just 12 to 13 years old. Detective Teri Gardner with the Oak Harbor police investigated the allegations extensively, but the Island County prosecutor declined to charge King. After leaving Oak Harbor, King moved to San Jose and continued to coach swimmers associated with USA Swimming, a national organization that has been criticized over allegations that it hasn't protected children adequately. North Whidbey Aquatics Club is affiliated with Pacific Northwest Swimming, a committee of USA Swimming, according to the club's Web site. Last year, investigators in San Jose uncovered King's lengthy history of molesting child swimmers. [/QUOTE] Oak Harbor swim coach convicted of rape featured Friday on national TV - Whidbey News Times A club being affiliated with a national organization where people presume standards needs to mean more than just paying a fee and receiving a banner to hang in the gym. USA Gymnastics responded with new background check policies. How will USA Swimming respond? Time for some PR work...

Coming from someone who knows the intimate details of how USA Swimming protects it's athletes, let me say that they are doing everything within their legal capacity to prevent this sort of thing. USA Swimming has had a background check system in place for several years now. It checks for any felony criminal convictions as well as charges involving felonies, illegal drugs, and sexual misconduct. Mr. King, to my knowledge, had none of these "red flags". Even if the background check was in place when he was committing his crimes, he still would have come up "clean". See this link for USA Swimming's response to these allegations: USA Swimming - Home Unreported, I'm guessing, will be the fact that USA Swimming and it's peer national governing bodies around the world do their best to "keep up" with convicted sex offenders in their sport. When these offenders have moved across state lines or even outside the country, USA Swimming has gone so far as to notify their counterparts to ensure these scum don't re-offend. USA Swimming's highest priority is the safety of its athletes within the framework of the law. They have been extremely proactive about this for many, many years. Nonetheless, I concur that the PR work on this has just begun...

You can watch it online on the ABC News 20/20 website, here are the links: "Sexual Misconduct in U.S. Swimming" Part 1: Swim coaches have been banned over sexual misconduct with young girls. Sexual Misconduct in U.S. Swimming - ABC News "Inside USA Swimming: Secrets & Betrayal" Part 2: Gold medal swimmer says she was abused by her coach from age 11. Inside USA Swimming: Secrets - ABC News The interview with the head of USA Swimming, Executive Director Chuck Wielgus, was not a good PR start - not a good answer when ABC News reporter asks if he has apologized to the victims of the sexual misconduct by the USA swim coaches - confounded by the question, his answer: "Do you feel I need to apologize to them". After Bross clarifies he means as the head of the sport, Wielgus goes on to say that he thiinks it's an unfair question. The ABC 20/20 investigation piece made a good case why some complain that USA Swimming is more concerned about public image rather than the safety of their young swimmers: 1) Hush-hush efforts to keep coaches like the one interviewed from talking; the coach gets contacted by USA Swimming that he is being investigated for changing the times for his swimmers 2) USA Swimming finally contacts the mom of an 18-year old swimmer, Laurie Sharp, 3 hours after Wielgus' interview - but not to update or ask her about her written complaints on a coach from 4 months ago, but to ask her why she contacted 20/20. Until she contacted 20/20 she says there was no investigation on her daughter's swim coach. He has since moved to another city and switched clubs, still teaching young swimmers, denies the allegations, and says he has not been contacted by USA Swimming and is not aware of any investigation. Hours before the broadcast USA Swimming notified ABC that they have a private investigation on the swim coach and that in the last 24 hours he's finally been interviewed. 3) Wielgus' taped speech to swim coaches last year that ABC obtained, regarding reporters focusing on USA Swimming: "This happens almost every week. We get cals at the office. I get informed about it. One of my greatest fears is someone's going to start linking all this together..". His response: that he 'may have been overstating to make his case'. 4) More swift action when the media is involved: Olympic Gold-medal winner Michael Phelps received an immediate 3 months suspension when the photo of him appearing to be smoking marijuana surfaced in the news. Based on the interviews, it appears USA Swimming needs to be more pro-active and diligent in immediately turning over complaints to legal counsel and launching an investigation. It shouldn't take 4 months to receive an answer on a complaint or a 20/20 broadcast. Proactive in the sense of performing more in depth background checks - such as contacting previous employers before giving a coach a clean standing as they did in December 2009 for Andy King without contacting the Oak Grove club.