This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Teri McKeever abuse allegations, Matt Bowe and Hunter Armstrong moving west to Cal, and Ariarne Titmus being one of the oldest in history to break a distance world record. See full list of topics below:
- 0:00 SwimSwam Breakdown Introduction
- 0:47 Teri McKeever put on administrative leave after multiple former athletes came forward alleging verbal and emotional abuse
- 16:24 Matt Bowe is the new assistant for the Cal men and his star protege, Hunter Armstrong, will move with him to Berkeley. Do you think Hunter will remain a professional?
- 21:51 Ariarne Titmus became one of the oldest women in history to break a distance freestyle world record. Can she continue to break barriers in the event?
- 25:42 Mark Schubert is the latest revered US coach to take a job overseas – are we OK with US coaches going international?
SINK or SWIM
- 34:39 Will Ryan Lochte make a good teammate (or traitor) in his latest reality TV endeavor?
- 38:18 Currently in recovery from an ankle injury, do you think Siobhan Haughey will medal in Budapest?
- 42:49 Which 200 of stroke do you think has the most variance from SCY to LCM?
- 45:26 Dakota Luther nearly went a best time in the 200 fly while training in her mother’s masters group – is Masters a viable option for elite-level swimmers?
- 49:42 Australian prodigy Flynn Southam opted out of the World Champs in Budapest in favor of the Commonwealth Games and Jr Pan Pacs – was this the right call for Southam?
I bet a large majority of elite women athletes want men coaches.
The one person we haven’t heard a peep from (and says something in itself), is Missy Franklin. She’s swam for Teri and seen enough to say one way or another. You’d think that she would come to Teri’s defense if this was a bunch of false accusations. Her silence seems to say otherwise – IMHO…
Or Natalie
The “one person” is totally inaccurate
I notice that Maggie removed the pic of her Cal announcement from her instagram…
Did Retta really hit us with a “now coaches are going to be looking over their shoulders and constantly worrying about whether they’ll be labeled abusive?” line. Oof.
I think it’s a fair take. Not because I think it discredits the accusers, but because I think coaches right now aren’t certain where the lines are drawn. I think this is something that groups like USA Swimming and ASCA can do more education on, and something as a community we sort of need to decide.
I think athletes and parents are figuring out that they can weaponize abuse claims too, and right now, there’s not a good way for non-abusive coaches to defend themselves against that.
Are there definitely tons of emotionally and verbally abusive coaches in the sport who have gotten away with it for too long? I think you can tell from my monologues that I agree… Read more »
I think your explanation makes sense given the nature of coaching and how there haven’t really been any bright line standards for what counts as “too harsh.”
I just thought Retta deploying that narrative in that way was a bit “cringe” (as the kids would say) given that it’s pretty much a verbatim rehashing of “all men will be looking over their shoulders in the workplace worried that they’ll be MeToo’ed.”
I agree, this is absolutely a fair take, for the reasons that you stated and the fact that there are areas of interaction where people feel pressured, put upon, and challenged that will be interpreted by swimmers as “abusive” even when the behavior is entirely within the bounds of appropriate coaching and motivational techniques. And, let’s not forget that in this area we see men and women coaches entirely differently, and are inclined to impugn one and not the other for the exact same behavior.
I thought the same thing. Coaches won’t be looking over their shoulders. Most will continue coaching the same way they’ve always coached – good or bad.
It’s only a problem to these coaches if it gets reported. Urban Meyer was ‘allowed’ to be a terrible person to his players because it was ‘allowed.’ My guess is he doesn’t think he did anything wrong either.
If you are a good coach and treat people right you won’t be looking over your shoulder because you have nothing to hide.
Braden’s right that just adding more women to collegiate administrations won’t and never was going to do anything to prevent abuse*. It’s not representation that matters, it’s incentives and consequences, so the idea of penalties for “if you knew about this and didn’t do anything” is at least a step in the right direction in fixing the incentive structure.
The same type of incentive structures is what keeps all of this stuff going – it was easier for Penn State, Michigan State, hell the Catholic Church to just keep covering their own butts than it was to actually root out the rottenness. (And especially in Cal’s case – they’re a perennial championship contender, why change anything if you don’t… Read more »
Representation matters, but so do the views and policies of that representation. It’s not “hire more women coaches” just because lack of diversity is a pure numbers issue.
Yeah I mean don’t get me wrong, there should be more women coaches. But just adding women to an organization isn’t somehow going to make that place more or less immune to this kind of thing.
It’s Bowe, like the front of the boat, opposite of the stern…not Beau or Bowie. Just tryin’ to help 😉
Don’t know if you know him personally but in the UK we’d definitely say Bowe as in Bow tie
https://swimswam.com/bill-dorenkott-describes-training-sets-for-hunter-armstrong-charlie-clark/
See, I was just in the UK with his former college teammates, and they said it “Bow-ee” like, take a stage *bow* + E
That’s how I’ve heard it pronounced in Australia too.
Wrong – it’s Bowe as in front of boat as we say in the Lake District where Matt comes from – happy to clarify
Haughey will medal in both the 100 and 200 free and Southam made the right call.
Agree on both