Arlington Aquatic Club (AAC) board president Mark Black has been suspended indefinitely by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Swimming for unspecified allegations of misconduct.
Black’s ineligibility references section 304.3.14 of the SafeSport code of conduct, which doesn’t offer more information on which part of the 52-page policy was potentially violated. SwimSwam previously reported on his June 12 entry into SafeSport’s disciplinary database but was unable to identify him at the time.
AAC is a Virginia-based club that earned silver medal status in USA Swimming’s 2022-23 excellence program. AAC produced a Tokyo Olympian two summers ago and achieved gold medal certification for the first time in 2021-22. Attempts at reaching the club for comment were unsuccessful.
In other SafeSport updates, Auburn swimmer Reid Mikuta entered SafeSport’s disciplinary this week following his arrest for alleged rape last week.
SafeSport is clearly over-taxed and underfunded, i.e., a perfect storm in which even reported cases take years, not months, to adjudicate. Someone – US government; USOC; USA Swimming – need to intervene and get this backlog of cases resolved – for the athletes as well as the accused. . . . . .
We need to be vigilant. Fund and staff. Get rid of the perverts and abusers.
The US government isn’t going to touch this unless it is a Senate hearing to say it has to be fixed. And that doesn’t do anything.