Banned Australian swim coach Brian King is not a USA Swimming member, and the United States’ swimming federation lacks the jurisdiction to ban him, USA Swimming said today, but his application could be rejected if he applied in the States.
Earlier this week, Swimming Australia announced a ban on King after a long list of allegations brought by parents, swimmers, former club officials and more. King was suspended from all coaching for six months and will be on probation for twelve. He was also banned from coaching kids under the age of 16 for three years.
That came on the heels of a number of troubling reports alleging that King had falsified his resume and verbally abused children, among other things.
The King ban is a bit complex, though, due to King’s connections with outside nations, particularly the U.S. and China.
King is a United States citizen and coached in the United States prior to his most controversial years in Australia, with stints at an American swim club as well as Penn State University.
USA Swimming spokesperson Scott Leightman said King is not a member of USA Swimming, and therefore not under the federation’s jurisdiction to ban. But if King did apply to become a USA Swimming member, the national swimming body would review for violations of the USA Swimming Code of Conduct in accepting or rejecting his application.
USA Swimming’s full statement:
As it relates specifically to Brian King, he is not a USA Swimming member, so our jurisdiction doesn’t involve his status. There is no universal, centralized banned list that covers all international federations. Our involvement would be if Mr. King were to apply for membership. If that situation arose, we would review his application appropriately for any potential violations of the USA Swimming Code of Conduct.
Another controversy surrounding King has been his connections with Chinese swimmers training in Australia. Back in January, news broke that King was training Chinese distance star Sun Yang – that came right after Sun’s former coach, King’s Australian mentor Denis Cotterell, was ordered to cut ties with the Chinese swimmer.
We asked Swimming Australia if the ban on King coaching would extend to coaching Chinese swimmers who are training in Australia. Swimming Australia’s Kathleen Rayment said the organization couldn’t comment on specific cases, noting only that Swimming Australia had “provided visibility to a number of relevant organisations” regarding their own investigations. The full Swimming Australia statement:
We cannot comment publically on individual cases. Swimming Australia has jurisdiction over its own membership. We have provided visibility to a number of relevant organisations in relation to our findings.
That leaves things still unclear if King could legally coach foreign athletes while still in Australia – it might fall to other federations like the Chinese swimming federation to officially ban King from coaching their athletes, if they choose to do so.
In order for someone to work with children they need to demonstrate certain attributes such as compassion, ethics, honesty, integrity and mutual respect. Unfortunately these are not attributes that Brian King displays.
Not only does Brian lie about the top shelf issues such as (sporting achievements, sponsorship, awards, work history, health, marriage) but he is someone that also lies about the seemingly innocuous and insignificant things as well.
Over the years I’ve lost count of Brian’s many lies – some of the better ones were “I’m sponsored by Oakley – I’ve been with them for over a decade” “I almost made the Olympics” “I can’t pay you now – I need to fly overseas because my wife has… Read more »
Don’t think much of him, but how could Australian swimming possibly stop him from training Chinese athletes…
We all know this man is a grub….and it sounds to me like USA don’t want a bar of him either! Fingers crossed that this banning does cover what I believe it should…….Swimming Australia’s wording was “Banned from training for 6 months” should mean BANNED regardless of whether he elects to train the Chinese or swimmers from other countries. Their ruling made NO mention of “with the exception of foreign swimmers”. Come on Swimming Australia – pull your finger out and show some professionalism.