Members of the LSU swimming and diving team allege their coaches engaged in bullying and fostered a “toxic environment,” according to the Louisiana Illuminator and Tiger Rag.
The two outlets obtained student-athlete exit interviews over a three-year period, which showed numerous complaints from LSU swim and dive team members specifically centered on head coach Rick Bishop and former associate head coach Leah Stancil.
The program parted ways with Stancil in May after she spent three seasons with the Tigers. A school spokesperson told the Louisiana Illuminator and Tiger Rag it did not comment on personnel matters when asked if the non-renewal of Stancil’s contract was related to the complaints.
The swimmers and divers allege that bullying was a common occurrence in the program and that the staff motivated the athletes through fear, according to the Louisiana Illuminator and Tiger Rag. One athlete said the program broke them “physically and mentally.” Another alleged that the coaches didn’t respect injuries.
One athlete said Stancil “made her life hell,” the administrator who conducted the interview wrote, which led to mental health issues. “Multiple athletes said in their interviews that Stancil made fun of a Chinese student’s name, commented on athletes’ appearances and showed favoritism toward men on the team,” Tiger Rag said in its article.
Another detailed incident said that after a female team member complained about inappropriate behavior by male teammates, Bishop excused the behavior by saying, “Boys are stupid and can make stupid decisions,” while addressing the entire team and making direct eye contact with the female who lodged the complaint.
One team member said they believed Bishop protected Stancil, saying the head coach intimidated her when she attempted to raise concerns about Stancil.
One student said they believed the school’s athletic department administration was aware of the coaches’ behavior.
From 2021 to 2025, the LSU swim & dive team recorded 35 exit interviews, the most among all programs at the school. The Louisiana Illuminator and Tiger Rag report that while 10 athletes criticized Bishop and Stancil, most had positive comments about their experience at LSU, including one who praised Bishop’s coaching.
Bishop and LSU have not responded to a request for comment.
Bishop has been serving as the head coach of the Tigers since 2021. The LSU women’s team is coming off a 7th-place finish at SECs and 22nd at NCAAs in 2025, improving one spot at the conference championships from 2024 while dropping one spot at NCAAs. The men’s program placed 7th at the 2025 SECs and 19th at NCAAs after placing 6th at SECs and 24th at NCAAs in 2024.
Under Bishop’s guidance, LSU had its best showing in 2023, when the women’s team placed 5th at SECs and 13th at NCAAs, the latter marking their highest finish since 1987. The men’s team’s best NCAA finish came when they finished tied for 15th in 2022, while the 6th-place showing in 2024 was their best at the conference level.
Terry Mckeever got screwed , she was not any different than many coaches like Bishop.
I would have granted you that point a long time ago, but if some of the reports I heard are true, I have to disagree with the got screwed sentiment. I’m not saying Bishop shouldn’t be fired. I’m just saying that it sounded like Teri, who I always liked, let some things go to her head. Defending her is not a hill I would die on.
“After Carter got scared and texted a teammate (about her suicidal ideation), McKeever was informed of Carter’s incident, to which McKeever allegedly mocked.
“Teri literally laughed in my face and said, ‘Do you know how pathetic that is? How stupid that is? How selfish that is?’,” said Carter, who never competed as a Golden Bear and ended up transferring to UCSB“
No, Teri didn’t get “screwed”. She literally set the bar for emotional abuse. Go ahead, give me a direct quote from a coach, in any sport, worse than that. Coach K at Duke wouldn’t have survived that.
Defending Teri McKeever really just outs you as a supporter of toxic behavior, but one who weirdly thinks women deserve a free… Read more »
As someone who swam under Teri at Cal, I can say firsthand that she set the bar for emotional abuse in our sport. What people have read so far is only a fraction of what actually happened – so much more went on behind closed doors that has never been spoken about publicly.
Oh, please speak about it!
Thinking of you <3 Thank you for sharing your experience a little on here. We are all in this together to make this sport better, period.
Well this sounds like all of my coaches in the 80s and early 90s.
As someone who swam under Rick Bishop at LSU I am not at all surprised that this was FINALLY released and holding him accountable for his actions and treatment towards his athletes. As someone who went through a lot while training and competing under him and was emotionally and mentally broken because of his actions, I am happy this is finally being shared and not hidden in the shadows. When this information was told to compliance during my exit interview I was gaslighted and made out to be crazy and that I was just imagining these things happened to me. Training under Rick ended my career due to an injury where I wasn’t heard about my pain or concerns about… Read more »
I saw the effects of bishops abuse on my daughter and her teammates at Michigan. We complained to the athletic department. Many of the athletes did nothing out of fear. Fear that he would act on them, or fear that they would lose their scholarships. They are still very young and impressionable. Because they are over 18, parents are helpless in some ways, as far as safe sport, and are limited in actions of complaint against the university. Toxic is the right word. Abusive is the right word. If you want more numbers, look at where he’s been, if you’re one of the people who say it was only 10 athletes complaining at LSU.
I heard he has a low yardage regime….coincidence???
Here’s what I am trying to understand, or don’t understand: You are a high school junior or senior going on the college visits. You’re being recruited, etc. Is your club coach not reaching out to and talking to the college coaches? As an athlete, are you not doing your due diligence regarding your college coach?
Seems to me that with just a simple google search, you can learn a lot about the coach you are going to be swimming for in college.
I think you are seeing research being done by domestic kids. I have not counted, but seems like majority of team is international… I could be wrong though.
If you’re an athlete looking to live somewhere for the next 4 years, you should be doing all the background research possible before making the commitment. Afterall, the swimmer should be interviewing the coach/school as much as they are being interviewed.
I agree 100%. My view is that young athletes training in the US, at least club coaches, hear a lot about college teams. Also, the US athletes hear a lot from older teammates who go on to swim in college. When you look at other young athletes who live outside of the US, it might not be as easy to hear or find those things (at least before these articles lol). And, that is exactly what this staff has done. They have found athletes who did not do any digging on the program… not all athletes, but some. And I still feel for them.
My son had done a visit at LSU and found nothing wrong with the coaching staff. Watched numerous practices and everyone was quite happy and coaches were all amazing.
Honestly, while they should, it doesn’t surprise me that many high school kids aren’t thinking to do this research…especially considering the number of parents who clearly didn’t bother to google their kid’s club coach.
As someone who committed to a school at 17, I had no idea what I was getting into. It was a happy family on my recruiting trips, which changed dramatically come August of freshman year.
I don’t think any of our swimmers were or are snowflakes. Contrary to some of the opinions expressed here, you have to be quite tough to swim in general, let alone an SEC college program. There is a difference in being tough and being fair. Expecting basic respect is not too much to ask. The “boys are stupid” incident was a big one, and there should be a paper trail. Unfortunately, there were some “golden” boys involved that needed to be protected, so the women were punished for even speaking up. There were also Title IX complaints, with factual evidence to support them that were swept under the rug to protect the program. It’s important to state that several of… Read more »
As a former UM swimmer under Rick – none of this is a surprise – and I am sure that the data from our team exit interviews over the years looks very similar to this. I, like many, felt that the complaints raised during UM exit interviews went into a void. I am glad they have been addressed to at least some extent at LSU.
Rick was personally quite nice and supportive to *me*, and to many. However, the duality outlined in the above article always existed within the program. He would be quite ruthless to some members of our team, and certainly exhibited a lot of bullying behaviors (calling people fat, making jokes about mental health issues, racial… Read more »