George Gibney, an Irish Olympic Swimming coach from the 1984 and 1988, was arrested this afternoon in Florida on more than 50 sexual abuse charges.
The case first began in 1993 when he was charged with 27 counts of sexual abuse related crimes including ‘indecency’ and ‘having carnal knowledge of girls under the age of 15’. The case was dismissed due to the length of time since the crimes had allegedly occurred, but in 1997, new allegations were made and a new investigation was opened.
Gibney moved to the United States in 1995, where he even coached for a USA Swimming age-group team in suburban Denver. In 2000, a Colorado police report addressed concerns that Gibney was participating in a ‘pedophile ring’ that traveled with children from his Catholic church’s parish to Peru. Journalist Irvin Muchnik opened a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, case into this report more than a decade later, and FBI agents were sent to Peru to investigate afterwards.
In 2020, this whole case was brought back into the forefront due to a BBC podcast titled Where is George Gibney. As a result of the podcast, 18 more victims came forward with new information. This led to the gardai (the Irish police) to submit a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2023.
The Irish Times reports that late last year, the gardai submitted an extradition request to U.S. authorities. After receiving the request, U.S. officials had to review and process the paperwork before complying with the arrest, which they did today in Florida.
Gibney will be detained in the U.S. until he appears in court, where he can either contest his extradition or accept it and return to Ireland and face charges.
The BBC podcast refers to this case as “one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in sports history”, along with the Larry Nassar case in USA gymnastics and the Barry Bernell case in UK football.
Please take the time to read all of this article and understand exactly what swimming was like in Ireland up to the 1990s. Please read as it involves two convicted national coaches in jail, George Gibney and a high ranking official convicted of wife and daughter murderer. Toxic. But on the positive how about a huge well done to the current CEO, Sarah Keane, who took over and done great things with the new organization
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2025/07/05/finding-george-gibney-i-feel-sad-for-13-year-old-me-and-9-year-old-ber-who-were-not-believed/
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/07/10/george-gibney-consents-to-extradition-to-ireland-to-face-sex-crime-charges/
I never post but I need to now. I am one of those. He started in the late 1960s. He was in his teens. Seems like he started with me, a boy, then gone straight and concentrated on girls. Know how I feel? How sick is that. He ended up in court in the early 1990s but got off on a technicality. The laws were changed here in Ireland after that. For over 30 years it’s been major news. TV and newspaper investigations, podcasts, raised in the Irish parliament but all to no avail. No one needed to say a word to US swimming because this was public. Your government was aware. I resigned to thinking he would never face… Read more »
It appears that Gibney was in the USA fleeing charges and scrutiny from Ireland law enforcement. To get into the USA, someone or several people must have signed something to get him approved to be in the country.
Where was ICE when we needed them eh?
Didn’t someone at ASCA or US Swimming help him get a job?
John Leonard former Acsa director was involved
“That name no longer has any meaning for me!”
~ Darth Vader
He was allowed to coach in the US? Did anyone from Ireland alert at least one person at USA Swimming about him? USA Swimming has a responsibility to check references/speak to Ireland Swimmig before allowing him to be a coach in the US. What kind of response did USA Swimming have regarding him?
You’d be shocked how many coaches in USA Swimming have engaged in misconduct, but are still allowed to coach because the violations occurred overseas and didn’t follow them here.
Google “Irv Muchnick”
Credit to Irv Muchnick for keeping this case in the public eye.
Florida seems to be the preferred retirement spot for sexual predators.
maybe he can be prisoner #1 in Alligator Alcatraz