Indianapolis—
It's the national body that oversees young swimmers. An entity that sanctions Indiana swimming meets and girls dreaming they'll make it to the Olympics.“USA Swim is governing body which gives permission and entitles swim clubs to use their name and sanction their meets,” explained former Westfield swimmer Brooke Taflinger.
USA Swimming once sanctioned convicted Indiana felon and Lawrence High School swim coach Chris Wheat, who committed sex acts with a 14-year-old female swimmer. Warren Central swim coaches Seth Sextion and Matthew Brown were charged with having sex with girl swimmers on their team. And USA Swimming sanctioned Westfield coach Brian Hindson, who pled guilty to producing child porn, videotaping swimmers naked.
Brooke Taflinger was one.
“Being violated and being taken advantage of that way is something that no young girl should be exposed to. Him hiding the cameras in the locker room and me finding out about it years later has been difficult, but I just hope all publicity surrounding this -- hopefully new changes USA swim will start to implement.”
Indianapolis attorney Jonathan Little is taking USA Swimming on, filing multiple suits. The entity is extremely powerful. But in the swim world it is known for letting sexual predators like coach Wheat continue on.
USA Swimming does not require its coach's to report sexual abuse. The membership of USA Swimming needs to wake up and realize that there is a financial motive for this cover up going back decades.”
Attorneys say USA Swimming has their own offshore insurance company that would to lose millions if they were to settle cases of their coach's involved in sexual misconduct. USA Swimming has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, but parent's say they repeatedly went to USA Swimming executives locally who did nothing. We tried to contact them but did not get a return call.
