This is Sarah Burt...She's dead...And her story, and the story of many others have been kept far too quiet, for far too long...A story that will remind us, that child sexual abuse and covering it up, is a serious problem, and it's happened at more places then just Penn State...Dealing with having been sexually abused by her USA Swimming coach had become too much, and too hard for Sarah Burt...At 16 years old she stepped out into traffic and was killed by a semi-truck...
This post is based on the incredible, and hard journalistic work of TIM_JOYCE...I can not do this story justice, please read his work HERE...And HERE...
I cannot understand how we all haven't read and heard more about this...This seems to be abuse, and cover-up on a much larger scale then we saw at Penn State...Why have we not heard about Sarah Burt? Why with all the horrible Olympic coverage, have we not heard about this? Why am I only learning about a Swimming coach named Andy King, that sexual abused kids for 3 decades, and was sentenced to 40 years in jail for it, today?
Yes, Swimming is not a mainstream sport...Sure, it's something we don't really pay much attention to until an Olympic year...But this is USA Swimming...Overseen by the U.S. Olympic Committee...How and why would they keep this quiet? Even worse, why is Tim Joyce the only guy to have the balls to go after them, and dig into this story?
Well, as Joyce pointed out, the media is "lazy"...I agree, and I'll go a step further...They're lazy, and they're afraid...They are afraid to offend anyone...Somewhere along the line they decided to be everyone's friend...Even when something awful happens, they'll report it, but they won't dig too deep...Then they let it blow over and wait for the next big splash...
Yes, I'm generalizing here...But I find it to be true of the majority of the media...How many reporters are covering the Olympics? A shit-load right! So why, when John Leonard, head of the American Swim Coaches Association, said he thought Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen’s world record 400-meter individual medley victory was a result of performance enhancing drugs, why didn't any of those reporters call him on his bullshit? Why didn't they ask him why he has firmly opposed all attempts to adopt a zero tolerance policy regarding inappropriate behavior by coaches?
As Joyce reported HERE, "Nearly ten years ago when such a policy was being pushed by coach Dick Shoulberg who had “seen and heard too much”, Leonard, also in no uncertain terms, came out strongly against such a policy. Said Leonard at that time, the “possibility of abuse of this policy against abuse, is huge”, and that “I would work against the adoption of this policy and urge others to do likewise.”"
Numbers of coaches facing accusations allowed to resign quietly, with no reason given...Numbers of hush-hush deals to protect predators, and to protect the name of USA Swimming...Nearly non-existent background screening of coaches...Coach Rick Curl paying the Davies family and signing a non-disclosure agreement after having abused Kelley Davies between the ages of 13-16...Curl has never denied the detailed accusations brought against him from the Davies family...Curl has moved to Australia...Gee, I wonder why! Maybe he knows a shit storm is about to come crashing down on him and USA Swimming....
There are clearly a mountain of breakdowns that have gone on here...It seems almost everyone involved in USA Swimming knows there is a problem with sexual abuse going on...Almost everyone seems afraid to step up and say/do something about it...There has been a massive cover up going on to protect the creeps...And of course, to protect the good name of USA Swimming...It gives you an awful feeling that there may be no one involved in USA Swimming, that isn't a scumbag...
And then there is the failure of the mainstream media, to not dig into this...To not follow up on past stories...To not ask the hard questions...Clearly there were plenty of rumblings, but only Tim Joyce had what it takes to speak up for the kids that had their innocence ripped from them...
My goal for this post is to make as many people aware of what has been happening to kids in the US Swimming program for decades...To make the media aware...And hopefully the work of Tim Joyce will inspire future journalists, and remind the old one of how it should be done...I hope you'll help me spread the word.
Later, The Beeze.
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