A 13-year-old swimmer in Colorado is still waiting for resolution after SafeSport alleged he slapped a teammate's butt in the locker room sometime between 2019 and 2022.
“Between approximately 2019 and 2022, you allegedly engaged in a pattern of behavior which constitutes Sexual Misconduct,” read an email from SafeSport to the swimmer.
The email was sent back in April 2022, but it took three months for the 8th grader to learn that a claim had been made that he slapped another teammate on the butt in a locker room 10 months earlier, in June of 2021.
The case remains open today.
“Their allegations are entirely untrue,” said the teen, whom The Associated Press didn't identify because he is a minor. “So my reaction, when I heard them, I was thrown off and confused. And then I was upset.”
The teen's mother said they have hit a wall when they approached SafeSport about the allegations, with responses to their questions sometimes taking days or weeks.
“I think the guilty-until-proven-innocent aspect is what bothers me the most, because right now, he’s still (considered) guilty until the case is finalized,” said the teen's mother.
According to the AP, SafeSport operates on a $24 million budget, with 65 employees, but the organization received 7,000 complaints last year.
“I asked if I could see a copy of the report. They said ‘Yes, eventually,’” the teen’s mom said. “I asked, ‘When?’ They said ‘When we’re done.’ I asked, ‘When’s that?’ They said, ‘We don’t know.’”
When the family reached out in November, asking for an update, a SafeSport investigator told them he could not "provide a firm timeline" for resolving the case.
The center’s spokesperson, Hilary Nemchik, told the AP she could not speak about specific cases, but “those types of responses are not consistent with the center’s values or our commitments to athletes and will certainly be reviewed.”
It wasn't until the fall of 2023 that the teen was able to register for a USA Swimming event, where he was to be chaperoned on the pool deck and could not come into contact with his accuser.
At his first event, the teen's mother, who has taken over duties as a full-time coach, briefly turned away from her son on the pool deck. At that time, the teen was approached by a meet referee who notified him he was breaking the rules and wouldn't be allowd to come back for the second day of competition.
The police were involved in the case back when it was first brought to light, but the case was dismissed by police back in October of 2022. SafeSport offered the teen a chance at an "informal resolution" back in November 2022. If he would admit to slapping the boy, he could go back to swimming with a six-month probation.
“We asked my son, ‘Are you OK with this?’” the mother said. “And he said ‘No, I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.’”
