Renown club and Olympics swim coach Dick Shoulberg added another honor to his decorated resume on Saturday.
The 85-year-old Shoulberg was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Swimming Hall of Fame during the organization’s annual award ceremony.
Shoulberg is best known for building Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania into a national powerhouse during his 45-year tenure there.
During Shoulberg’s coaching stint, the Germantown men’s program won two National Prep School Championships (1985, 1986), while the women won five national titles (1986, 1987, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2005).
Shoulberg also founded the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club, which in 1985 started a partnership with Foxcatcher Swim Club that ended in 2000.
Shoulberg spent time as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic women’s team in 1988 and the men’s team in 1992, coaching Olympians such as Dave Wharton, David Berkoff, Trina Radke and Erika Hansen.
Shoulberg also coached Fran Crippen, an 11-time All-American at Virginia who won two national titles in the 800 freestyle and four other open water national titles. Crippen died tragically in 2010 while swimming at an open water race in Dubai.
Shoulberg’s coaching tenure wasn’t without some controversy, however.
Back in 2013, Shoulberg went on a leave of absence and then later was reinstated following allegations of student hazing.
In 2016, a civil suit was filed by a former Germantown Academy swimmer who alleged that the school “allowed Shoulberg to continue coaching despite the many verified claims of abuse (by athletes) that occurred during his tenure.”
A complaint was also filed with USA Swimming, which eventually determined that there shouldn’t be an investigation of Shoulberg.
To others though, Shoulberg was a father figure and a community institution, something that the ISHOF felt was worthy enough to give him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Shoulberg is great man.
Ugh🙄
Thank you for citing the article- I read this whole article and missed it on the first read. The comments had to educate me.
For anyone that cares about an updated opinion: lionize Shoulberg if you want. You’re entitled to your opinion. I won’t- I don’t admire his body of work. I don’t think ISHOF should either.
Reading through Chris DeSantis’ article reminds me of how the same situation of teammate behavior started happening at the team I swam on (not that level, but close). And how the coaches and parents stepped in and put a stop to it.
Congrats on the Lifetime Achievement award with 50 asterisks on it
Yeah, no. Rewarding abusers is not right.
The old guard will always protect its own, because decrying his behavior forces a lot of introspection for folks who don’t want it.
Ironically, organizations like this will never celebrate the creators of this website – because they don’t like that SwimSwam exposes abusers – but will celebrate the abuse itself.
and that old guard is exactly why our sport, the one that gets the prime time Olympic spots, is in such a state of disfunction. Their younger acolytes do nothing but hold the sport back because ‘that’s how [~~~~] did it’.
Richard Shoulberg should have been permanently banned from the sport, NOT given an award by the ISHOF.
Permanently banned for what? He’s never been adjudged to have committed a Safesport violation. And don’t just say Safesport is a joke.
You can literally threaten to kill your wife and Safesport won’t do anything about it.
Safesport is a joke.