Olympic Gold Medalist Claudia Poll Accuses Former Coach Of Abuse

At least three former Costa Rica national team swimmers, including Olympic gold medalist Claudia Poll, have spoken out against former coach Francisco Rivas on allegations of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.

Interferencia, an investigative radio show affiliated with the University of Costa Rica, published a video with interviews on the subject with an accompanying written story on July 14. Watch the full video (in Spanish) below.

According to the alleged victims, they and others suffered through years of harm at Rivas’ hands. They were threatened and isolated from each other for decades, the alleged victims said, to scare them out of reporting. Rivas, 75, has coached for five decades and attended seven Olympic Games as a coach. His most well-known athlete is Poll, the gold medalist in the 200 free at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Poll is the Central American nation’s only Olympic gold medalist.

“…he stole my cell phones, he stalked my social media to know information about me,” Poll told Interferencia about Rivas. “He paid to have my conversations recorded, and later he would repeat to me the topics of those conversations. He went through my trash. One time, he took used condoms out of my trash, made photocopies, and demanded I tell him who they belonged to.”

Marcela Cuesta, a 1988 Seoul Olympian, was the first swimmer to speak out. In December of 2024, Cuesta made a Facebook post saying there was constant physical, psychological, and sexual abuse on her swim team. Cuesta mentioned a coach without saying any specific names. The post, she said, was meant to break silence on the issue and make other potential victims not feel alone.

One month later, Cuesta filed a report to the Costa Rican Federation of Aquatic Sports, or FECODA, against Rivas. In this report, she went into more detail about the alleged abuse, mentioning physical aggression such as hitting with flip-flops and sticks “to the point of breaking the skin.” Cuesta also mentioned sexual abuse again and being controlled on things such as her haircut and who she could talk to.

FECODA said it was unable to conduct an investigation, as the statute of limitation had expired. Cuesta’s report detailed events from 1978-1988 while training at Club Cariari.

Poll served as a witness in Cuesta’s reports, and she later reported counts of abuse herself. Cuesta said that she and Poll had not spoken in 28 years when discussing what she described as Rivas’ “divide and conquer” strategy. 

Manuel Rojas, another former Cariari swimmer and Central American Games medalist, also testified in Cuesta’s FECODA report. Rojas said that he faced physical and psychological abuse, including allegedly intentionally harmful massages. Rivas suspended a then-18-year-old Rojas in what Rojas claimed to be a personal vendetta, thus ending his career. 

All three athletes claimed they were afraid to speak out about what they faced. In Cuesta’s letter to FECODA, she claimed that Rivas threatened things such as death and imprisoning her father if her parents were to get involved.

After reporting to FECODA and the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation without investigations, they went to the National Olympic Committee. The committee’s president, Henry Nuñez, confirmed in March that the organization would carry out an investigation based on the reports.

Rivas did not respond to Interferencia for commentary on the reports. According to Interferencia, he currently coaches at the Costa Rica Tennis Club in San Jose.