James Sutherland and Madeline Folsom contributed to this report.
Update #1: USA Swimming has confirmed that the report was made to SafeSport after Rawak was announced as the new CEO.
Chrissi Rawak withdrew from the position of USA Swimming CEO when USA Swimming became aware of a SafeSport complaint regarding her conduct while a coach at the University of Michigan. Rawak resigned within 24 hours of USA Swimming being notified of the allegation.
USA Swimming released a statement in response to a SwimSwam request about the allegations on Saturday afternoon.
USA Swimming’s Statement:
Today’s news is concerning and disappointing to USA Swimming and our broader community. The fundamental responsibility of USA Swimming, above all else, is to protect the safety and well-being of our athletes.
In the past few days, USA Swimming was made aware, for the first time, of the existence of a report that was filed with the U.S. Center for SafeSport after Chrissi Rawak‘s appointment was announced. These matters, which we are only now coming to understand, were previously unknown and were not disclosed to USA Swimming during the rigorous vetting process of Ms. Rawak. This process was led by a reputable search firm and a dedicated stakeholder task force, followed well-established best practices, and was conducted with the highest possible degree of due diligence, including external reference and background checks.
Immediately upon receiving limited information from the Center earlier this week, USA Swimming raised the matter with Ms. Rawak (with approval from the Center, which has exclusive jurisdiction over this claim), at which point Ms. Rawak informed us of her decision to resign. We are and remain bound by confidentiality obligations under the SafeSport Code, which we take very seriously in order to protect the integrity of the reporting process and of any athletes involved. This matter remains exclusively with the Center.
The initial resignation cited “unforeseen personal circumstances that we learned about late this week” and Rawak sent a text to staffers at Delaware citing the death of her mother-in-law as the reason for her decision to not take the job as USA Swimming.
The complaint was made to SafeSport after she was announced as USA Swimming CEO.
The USA Swimming CEO position has been vacant since the fall, when Tim Hinchey left the role. He had been in the position since 2017.
SWIMMING & COACHING CAREER
A native of Newtown, Pa., Rawak grew up competing for Germantown Academy in Fort Washington and was a member of the school’s 1987 national championship team.
Growing up training under Germantown coach Dick Shoulberg, Rawak’s primary event focuses were the 1500/1650 free, 200 back and 400 IM. “Everyone was a distance swimmer” training under Shoulberg, Rawak told SwimSwam on Wednesday.
She then went to the University of Michigan, where she was a member of the women’s swim team from 1988 until 1992 before serving as an assistant coach for the women’s team under Jim Richardson from 1992 until 1997. Rawak also oversaw the Wolverine Swim Camp during her coaching tenure.
She has worked in athletics and university administration since 1997 at Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and the University of Delaware. She has served as the University of Delaware’s athletics director since 2016, when she became the first woman to hold that job on a full-time basis and one of the few female athletics directors in NCAA Division I Athletics.
SwimSwam reached out to Rawak on Friday evening asking her about the decision to leave; Rawak responded to that email on Saturday afternoon asking for privacy for her family, but has not yet responded to a second email asking about the allegations.
The US Center for SafeSport also did not respond to a request for comment.
SafeSport is a political organization. They choose when to investigate or not based on where the allegations come from. This was a hit job…safe sport didn’t even exist back then and no one would think the allegation is an issue, especially given when it happened.
Look at the reports from the mid 90s when she was a coach. She was dating her swimmer. This is exactly why safeport exists. Everyone on our team at UM knew about this.
We just need DOGE to come in and help USA Swimming
DOGE doesn’t seem to really know what they are doing in most cases. Breaking things without an understanding of what it is doing.
She looks like Elizabeth Holmes.
The Clown Show at USA Swimming continues.
It has been exhausting watching the amount of poor administrative leadership behavior/direction in USA swimming. Eventually it will be cleaned up. I have to be optimistic.
It starts with Board elections. If you don’t have a vote, talk with your LSC delegates and make sure they SHOW UP to vote.
USA Swimming needs completely new leadership as over the past year they really look like amateurs:
1) It was known in May to folks working at USA HQ that Tim gone after Paris
2) Lost $20M in the market when everyone else was making money
3) Fumbled CEO search
Whatever is going on here, it just doesn’t bode well for anything.
I’m so tired.
Safesport report comes after her hire. Hmm. A 1997 incident. Hmm. Whole thing seems like some sort of set up. USA Swimming got some problems.
So much of how things went down 30&40 years ago would be viewed as more than problematic. The secrecy that surrounds everything safe sport, will always leave people guessing. As much as USAS needs to do better, Safe Sport also needs to do better.
Or, if you did something in a professional capacity 10, 20, 30 years ago that is afoul of SafeSport rules now either come clean about it at your interview or don’t apply for a high profile job where you will be subject to higher scrutiny. Sorry if it’s unfair but it’s reality today.
Snarky is correct.
The problem is, and if you understand how memory actually works you understand this, is that no one, including the participants, will know exactly what happened 20-30 years ago to adjudicate it. Memory is not like a video etched is a solid non-changing way into someone’s brain to be retrieved intact.
Which is why coverups and a lack of transparency from organizations like USA Swimming and the University of Delaware are such a problem – because it prevents any documentation of events when they happen for future posterity.
Not a set up. The problem is that the hiring team and vetting firm never got to the right people or asked the right questions of the right people before the announcement.
You don’t know that. This surfaced after her hire. SafeSport reporters are guaranteed anonymity. Could/should they have farmed the rumor mill? How could you be sure of anything at that point?
I’m not defending USAS or the search necessarily, but do find the timing here odd.
FYI USA swimming safesport is known to not successfully keep anonymous reporting anonymous. They also are even more well known for ignoring all abuse unless you have law enforcement or legal representation – even if they’re presented with photos and video evidence. The training is much different than what actually does/doesn’t happen. HUGE liability.
Is there a similar agency to safesport for polititions/presidents?
it would be about as effective as the current safesport.
Apparently you get promoted
Obviously the more crimes you did and especially of you’re a convicted felon, the better chance you become POTUS.
there’s probably a Secretary of State job coming up soon ….