Coach Sean Hutchison cleared from accusations of unsuitable relations with his female athlete
USA Swimming has set free coach, Sean Hutchison, from an allegation of having an inappropriate relation with one of his female athletes. The decision came from an independent inquiry conducted by USA Swimming through a private independent investigator, where
the study cleared the forged allegation and revealed that no such thing as coach Hutchison’s unsuitable relation with any of his students was visible.
USA Swimming hired a private investigator after the issued news, citing rumours of an improper relation of Hutchison with an adult athlete. As a result, the legal counsel of USA Swimming appointed a private investigator to solve the issue.
Executive director to USA Swimming, Chuck Wielgus, mentioned that in the absence of a formal complaint, it is not their usual course of action to investigate any issue but they wanted to act in the greatest interest of their athletes, coaches and the organisation.
After receiving the report, they also added that it was necessary to bring out the truth, so the results were announced. Allegations came up in December 2010, after which swim coach, Hutchison, resigned from his position.
Hutchison is one of the top American swimming coaches, who has the honour to escort the USA Swimming team to the 10th FINA World Championships in Dubai. Hutchison has coached five out of 18 National Swimmers in the Women’s team, which includes
Katie Hoff, Dagny Knutson, Kate Ziegler, Kara Lynn Joyce and Ariana Kukors.
Hutchison expressed that he decided to quit from his job in December, 2010, after he was tackled by an official of FAST about the allegation of having a relationship with one of his female athletes. He also said that he is going to start his own professional
training centre, ahead of FAST.
FAST is one of the most efficient training centres of Swimming USA, which was established in 2007 to work solely with professional coaches and postgraduate athletes.
In addition, Athlete Protection Officer of USA Swimming, Susan Woessner, expressed that they value the comfort and protection of their members and these false rumours can be dangerous for their athlete protection plans. She also added that they want to promote
those with credible information to come forward and discourage those who spread false rumours.
The synopsis of the investigators’ report revealed that there were no signs of any wrong doing on Hutchison’s behalf, as reports stated, “There was no evidence to substantiate the existence of an inappropriate sexual or romantic relationship between Coach
Hutchison and the athlete . . . This is the same conclusion reached by the investigator hired by the Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team.”
The same result was disclosed by the investigator hired by the Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team.
Hutchison articulated that this did not happen for the first time in the history of swimming. He stressed that several coaches have been alleged of such rumours in the past, where some of them have suffered very serious consequences.
USA Swimming principles prohibit personal relationships among coaches and their students. It is also a breach of their code of conduct to knowingly file a false accusation report on any inappropriate relationships regarding a member. The governing body needs
to take some pertinent stops, so that they could effectively handle such rumours from destroying the image of their swimming coaches.
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