The Dark Side of Youth Sports
The 2024 Olympics is underway. For the next week millions of Americans will cheer on the latest additions to the nation’s historically great list of swimmers. From Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps to Jenny Thompson and Katie Ledecky, United States swimming continues to excel.
But there is a dark side to this success. As young swimmers and their families pursue their Olympic dreams, and our culture encourages young girls to play competitive sports, some adults take advantage. It’s this very troubling side of competitive swimming that Irvin Muchnick documents in his powerful new book, Underwater: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming And Around the Globe.
Coaching A Pathway to Abuse
Muchnick shows that while most youth sports coaches are not pedophiles, pedophiles seek to becoming youth sports coaches. It’s a job that gives adults physical, psychological and career control over young people. Under the guise of training regimens and discipline necessary to take athletes to the next level, coaches wield enormous power. Parents defer to this power with even the most dominating coaches, believing that these “experts” make their child an Olympian.
Sexual abuse by overwhelmingly men coaches targets all genders. But the most common in youth sports has been male coaches abusing girls. The most infamous is Larry Nassar, who spent is 18 years as the team doctor of the United States women’s national gymnastics team while sexually assaulted hundreds of young girls.
Underwater offers countless examples of serial abusers like Nasser in USA Swimming. Muchnick notes the parallel with the Catholic Church clergy abuse. Priests guilty of abuse were not defrocked but were instead transferred to other parishes. Where they continued abusing kids. Swimming also offers a huge number of job opportunities. Muchnick provides example after example of coaches accused of, or even admitting to abuse, simply getting other jobs via positive references from other coaches.
Consider the case of Ariana Kukors. Her coach began sending her sexually suggestive texts when she was fifteen. He had a practice of post-race hugs and requiring all swimmers to have mandatory post-practice handshakes with the coach. He began having sex with Kukors when he was 34 and she was 16. The coach was eventually brought to justice.
But Kukors’ experience did not cause the swimming establishment to curb the risk of such coaching practices. One coach even lived with a swimmer under his control and the authorities did nothing.
A Call for Reform
Muchnick makes an undisputed case that something is very wrong with how the United States treats youth sports. He and I grew up in an era where youth sports were primarily played for fun. Nobody heard of “traveling teams” and few teenagers were groomed for national athletic greatness (I knew one boy that was, a golfer that went on to win a PGA title).
Today’s young athletes feel compelled to pick a particular sport so they can play year-round in tournaments. And at an early age are subjected to high levels of pressure in what should be considered just a game.
Parents may complain about spending weekends driving hours to their kids’ games but that’s become the norm. It’s not that far a reach to then see parents looking the other way when a coach known for getting his swimmers to the next level seems abusive.
I was hoping the book would end with all the abuses Muchnick describes finally produced sweeping reforms at USA Swimming. But (Spoiler Alert!) that was not to be. Muchnick identifies some positive reforms and identifies pro-reform allies in the swimming establishment. But there remain too much opportunity for abuse.
It may take wide readership of Underwater to push parents to demand reforms that better protect their families. Those involved in such programs should be sure to read this book.
Filed under: Book Reviews
