Olympian Ariana Kukors (now Ariana Kukors Smith by marriage) has filed a civil suit against former coach Sean Hutchison, USA Swimming and former national team director Mark Schubert, alleging sexual abuse of a minor and negligence.
Kukors says Schubert and USA Swimming covered up sex crimes by Hutchison, and that Schubert failed to report “reasonable suspicion of child abuse or endangerment” based on behavior Kukors said Schubert saw between then-teenage Kukors and her coach at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships and 2007 World Championships.
Kukors and her attorneys announced the suit in a press conference today. In the suit, she also alleges that USA Swimming vice president Murray Stephens and former USA Swimming Club Development Managing Director Pat Hogan “protected Hutchison during a background check,” per The OC Register. Hogan resigned in February. Though he didn’t specify a reason for his resignation, he had come under fire for his relationship with his first wife, who began swimming for him at age 17, when he was a 27-year-old coach. Hogan says the relationship between the two didn’t start until both were adults.
The suit seeks payment for damages, for legal fees and for punitive damages against Hutchison, USA Swimming, KING Aquatic Club and Aquatic Management Group.
Update: USA Swimming has released the following statement:
“As expressed earlier this year, we respect Ariana Kukors’ bravery in stepping forward and sharing her story. We have been in regular contact with her legal team over the last several months and will continue to work with them and Ariana through this process. No further information will be provided at this time, given the pending litigation.”
You can read the full lawsuit here. We’ll continue digging through and updating this story with any more pertinent information we find.
Background
Earlier this year, Kukors came forward with allegations that Hutchison began grooming her at the age of 13 and sexually abusing her at 16 while Hutchison coached her at the KING Aquatic Club in Washington. Hutchison categorically denied the allegations, saying only that he and Kukors had “a committed relationship” that did not begin until she was “old enough to make those decisions for herself.”
Hutchison began coaching Kukors when he was 31. Kukors and Hutchison later moved to join a burgeoning professional training group within Fullerton Area Swim Team, or FAST, in 2009.
USA Swimming admitted that it received a tip about an inappropriate relationship between the two in 2010 (Kukors was 21 by then, but a relationship between a coach and swimmer was still against USA Swimming’s Code of Conduct), but says its investigation didn’t turn up any evidence. The organization says Hutchison, Kukors and Kukors’ sister all denied that a romantic relationship existed. Kukors’ attorney says Kukors denied the claims because she was in an abusive relationship with Hutchison at the time.
But that investigation is now under scrutiny of its own. USA Swimming’s former SafeSport Senior Director Susan Woessner resigned earlier this year while admitting she kissed Hutchison in 2007 and didn’t disclose the kiss when she worked on the 2010 investigation of Hutchison and Kukors.
Then-USA Swimming National Team head coach Mark Schubert claimed earlier this year that he heard rumors that Hutchison was engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a swimmer, and that he brought those rumors to the attention of FAST head coach and CEO Bill Jewell. Jewell then hired a private investigator, but the only evidence found was a photo of Hutchison and Kukors’ cars parked together at 5 AM in front of Hutchison’s condo.
But now, The OC Register reports that Jewell claims he began to hear rumors and asked Schubert to help him find a private investigator. Jewell’s story places that interaction after Schubert had been fired by USA Swimming.
Kukors: ‘A pedophile is a pedophile’
You can read the full OC Register report, which includes a lot more detail on Hutchison’s alleged abuse of Kukors here. In it, Kukors has some strong words for her former coach and romantic partner:
“A pedophile is a pedophile and that’s exactly what I believe Sean Hutchison is based on a what he’s done to me,” Kukors says. …”[T]he power differential is extremely important not only to take into account the sexual abuse but also the psychological abuse that comes into play there. Because when you have someone dangling the golden carrot of your Olympic dream it doesn’t leave a whole lot of options”
Kukors also says Hutchison remained in contact with her after she broke things off, even after she met her future fiancee, Matt Smith. In the OC Register report, Kukors says Smith found out about the sexual abuse, and in 2016, he contacted Hutchison and told him to stop contacting Kukors. Kukors says she was terrified about what Hutchison would do. Smith says he’d never seen someone so terrified in his life, and that Kukors’ reaction when he told her he’d contacted Hutchison was “to sit on the floor in the fetal position for like an hour.”
More background:
- Olympian Ariana Kukors Accuses Former Coach Sean Hutchison of Sexual Abuse
- Ariana Kukors Opens Up With Details About Hutchison Abuse Allegations
- Sean Hutchison Denies Kukors’ Abuse Allegations In Statement
- USA Swimming Investigated Hutchison/Kukors In 2010, Statement Confirms
- Mark Schubert Says He Reported Hutchison/Kukors Rumors To FAST Coach
- SafeSport Director Susan Woessner Resigns, Discloses 2007 Kiss With Hutchison
Lawsuit Specifics
Here’s a look at some of the specific allegations made in Kukors’ lawsuit:
- That USA Swimming officials “secretly agreed” to manipulate the organization’s background-check process to protect Hutchison from “pervasive rumors of his inappropriate sexually motivated behavior towards minors.”
- That Murray and Hogan also benefited from this manipulation so they would also pass background checks.
- That USA Swimming officials warned others that if they spoke out against Hutchison, they could be liable of slander.
- That a relationship between Hutchison and Kukors was “widely known” within USA Swimming leadership as of 2006, but that no one reported anything or tried to protect Kukors.
- That Woessner “not only had a prior intimate sexual relationship with Hutchison but also had such a relationship with at least one other USA Swimming swim coach.”
Also named in the lawsuit are the Aquatic Management Group (which managed the Mt. Rainier pool where Kukors says Hutchison first began grooming her with KING), Western Zone Swimming, Pacific Northwest Swimming (local governing bodies within USA Swimming) and KING Aquatic Club.
Good for her for having the guts to bring this lawsuit and attention to this issue. The culture has to change. When someone has power over you, it is difficult to get out of that situation.
As far as her parents go……they should have been aware and intervened. However, many swim clubs and in particular regional and national travel teams don’t allow parent involvement or discourage it. This is a problem in gymnastics as well.
USA Swimming interviewed Ariana when she was already an ADULT and she denied everything plus she had her sister transcribe the conversation! What exactly is she complaining about? The sister per the article was older…. so two grown adults did not think anything was wrong, and now Ariana blames USA swimming for not “stopping” her from doing dumb things that even her parents accepted as normal? I hope USA swimming does NOT settle and fights this nonsense in court.
Hutchinson is awful, but how was everyone else supposed to know anything was wrong when Ariana (even as an adult) and her entire family which includes the parents thought all was well? Are the parents named in the lawsuit too? Because… Read more »
For an organization that you seem to think did nothing wrong, they sure acted in 2011 exactly like you’d expect an organization that was guilty as hell and knew the full gravity of its actions… Run a bogus “investigation” designed to produce their desired result and then tell the abuser to quietly disappear.
I hope she takes this thing the distance, personally. USA Swimming needs a good scrubbing.
SWIM MOM- you read my mind. I completely agree with your comments.
Sad narrative on how people can lose sight of innocence. I hope Kukors finds serenity and closure for the devastation she endured.
Hey. Novel idea here. Coaches, stop touching your GD swimmers and justifying it when you do! How is this hard to understand.
It should be: Hey. Novel idea here. GD Predator Coaches , stop touching your swimmers and justifying it when you do! How hard is this to understand ?
Stop enabling predator coaches USA swimming by protecting them and their swim clubs. Every child who participated in USA swimming and as a card carrying member, deserves legal representation under insurance with independence . They deserve to have their complaints believed and investigated but more importantly immediately reported to law-enforcement without bias .
It truly is time for a leadership change in USA swimming. The cover up runs deep. If you are a predator Coach, or Coach that has had a sexual relationship of any kind with the swimmer at… Read more »
Not really a “novel” idea since 99.9% of coaches don’t touch their swimmers.
It was sarcasm. Not novel at all. I’m just sick of hearing stories about coaches who can’t seem to understand that teenaged athletes look to them for guidance in their swimming, not romance and that it’s a complete breach of that trust to cross that line.
The specifics from the article are much like what Kelley Davies Curran described in her victim impact statement (available on http://www.concussioninc.net) at the hands of Rick Curl. For ANYONE who says that Kukors-Smith is out for the money, I say read the article above. Her life was devastated. People knew about it and let it happen. She’s the victim. Victim-shaming is inexcusable. Hutchison is the predator.
As relates to Rick Curl: it can probably be argued that the allegations made public against him in 2012 (hidden by USA Swimming since 2011, and people knew as far back as the 1980’s) really grabbed nationwide attention. Curl was sent to prison in 2013, but he as… Read more »
These examples are criminal matters. What do people not get about the lack of investigative ability that exists outside of the criminal justice system. USA Swimming can be a conduit to the criminal justice system, and perhaps should be more aggressive, but the fact remains that when sexual violence happens, or laws are broken, then it is up to the victim and their love ones to bring it to the police. That should be the lesson……not to blame folks with no aptitude or ability to adjudicate, investigate, or punish beyond pulling the swim coach card.
The reason victims do not come forward is because of the incessant victim-shaming and questioning of motives by others. So, while it’s up to the victims to “bring it to the police,” you should understand the thought process of the victim. Your comment reads like you are quick to judge victims for not bringing charges. Question: if you had a child who was molested or raped, and knowing how these things go in the school rumor-mill, would you bring it up? Your child will be publicly shamed, called names, harassed to no end…
You really need to review what’s been going on in the news for the past several months and years. You’ll find in story after story the… Read more »
All that may be true, but these organizations are not capable of performing criminal justice duties. They don’t have the skills, legal power, or mandates to investigate and adjudicate sexual assault, statutory rape, etc. And if her parents and friends didn’t know this was going on, how can we expect US Swimming to? Those are the salient points, not the reasons why victims don’t come forward. And by the way, try to not accuse strangers on the internet of “being quick to judge victims for not bringing charges” when you have no clue who you are talking to.
So I just read about Jancy Thompson and an interview she gave regarding her abuse by Norm Hovercraft and the subsequent horrific treatment by USA Swimming to shut her off and shame her in the process. She stated not only was it Wielgus but those underneath him that did everything possible to make her go away. The mistreatment was shocking. It is incredulous to me that the USA Swimming could act in such a manner–those in power that have children and families of their own–could allow for this blatant abuse to continue is beyond my scope of understanding. They didn’t do anything because they didn’t have to….as long as it was kept at a relatively low pitch no one needed… Read more »
Yet Mr Ledecky snr , apparently a lawyer in DC sent his daughter to Rick Curl’s club ? One would think someone might have tapped him on the shoulder if it were common knowledge or disproved of .
Listen to the interview Hank Shearer did with OC Register reporter with Scott Reid, who is leading the investigative reporter for OCR. You can tune in at 4:35 http://harryshearer.com/le-shows/may-20-2018/ The US Swimming and USA Gymnastics stories have a long way to go. I feel badly for the brave swimmers and gymnasts that endured this abuse. Needs to stop, and USA Swimming and USA Gymnastics need to get act together, culture must change.
anything over 18 is a relationship……18-24 is 6 years. Even at 16 she could have said something…parents..hello ??……Not saying it didn’t happen but the story has all the buzzwords of BS.
Once again with the victim shaming. You need to understand what grooming is and what it means. Read the whole OC Register article, all the disgusting details then imagine that being you sister, mother, daughter etc and think before you type.
Please read literature on grooming, child abuse, and sexual abuse. When a relationship *starts* when an individual is 18, it is different from an abusive relationship that started when a CHILD is 15-16 years old without a fully developed brain, rationally and emotionally.
Starting from that point, it is not as though that same abused child turns 18, and all of a sudden gets to “re-decide” and “re-commit” to the relationship, now as a consenting adult with a fresh perspective and none of the history. When the relationship starts with an adolescent mind, and then the child abuse continues for the next 2-3 years, that 18-year-old is no longer a consenting adult when it comes to that relationship.
Later in the relationship her sister lived in the same apartment that Kukors shared with Hutchinson and her mother would come visit. That does NOT excuse Hutchinson from culpability for grooming and assaulting her when she was underage. He is by all definitions a sexual predator.
USA Swimming turned a blind eye to all this and when forced to confront the issue held a sham inquiry chaired by a women that had been intimate with Hutchinson. We were at GWSC with Schubert and Jewell and Dia Riada as coaches when this was coming out. $$$$$ are coming.
Seems like Schubert involved in several lawsuits. Will this become a trend???
Karma would indicate yes.
Especially if people start digging up 17 y.o. Dara Torres stories.
I have no idea if there is any truth to this or not, but if so, THIS needs to be reported. We are commenting about a situation where the swimming community heard rumors but did nothing, and you just alluded that there is another situation of this. I don’t know if there is any substance to this, but I do know that repeating rumors rather than reporting them just keeps this sick culture going.
On the contrary. This is the healthiest things have been in a long time.
Sick culture was when everyone on this board knew Kukors was being abused, openly talked about it and nothing was done.
All the athletes at FAST during this time were in a very toxic environment.
Two questions….
1. Did we ever find out the two female pro swimmers that got into an altercation at FAST? I can guess one.
2. How did Schubert make 500k after being fired as National Team Director?
I put my name on it.
This has been heard on the pool deck for over a decade.
Like I said…..Karma