Swimming World Magazine has received a text copy of the speech that embattled coach Ken Stopkotte gave to his team upon his resignation from the F.A.S.T. swim team.
Although the official Indiana Swimming Statement release gave Stopkotte the appearance of accepting full blame and responsibility for the actions, his comments to Swimming World seem to indicate that he is not quite so remorseful.
Among his statements include those still alluding to a belief that the extreme nature of the accusations is due to his involement in the sexual abuse cases.
He also claims that the mistakes were due to an “administrative shortcut” rather than an actual attempt on his part to cheat.
Although a settlement was reached, it sounds like this whole situation is far from over. Indiana Swimming’s original statement on the matter was pretty scathing, and it sounds like Stopkotte felt similarly about the organization. It will be interesting to see whether Indiana and USA Swimming will respond to his comments.
To read the full statement that he released, please check out SwimmingWorld.com, and go here to join in the discussion on all things time-fudging here.
