Mark Schubert did a long interview with Craig Lord, posted yesterday. In it he does even more contortions to try and present himself as somebody who tried to do the right thing about sexual abuse in swimming. This is plainly not true.
As covered before, several of the statements Schubert has tried to put forth in the aftermath of Ariana Kukors' public accusation of her former coach directly contradict his sworn testimony from 2015.
Schubert continued that theme yesterday. He would like to theme himself as a whistleblower who was powerless against the machine of USA Swimming. This is complete nonsense. One only has to compare his own words to reveal that.
One of the central claims that Schubert makes in the interview is to put all of the blame on dead former USA Swimming CEO Chuck Wielgus. All swimming people should be on the watch for this excuse from Schubert and others in the coming weeks.
Wielgus deserves a ton of blame, no doubt, but for Mark Schubert to paint himself as a helpless employee of Wielgus when he occupied one of the most powerful positions in American swimming rings false.
To whit, Schubert says that he implored Wielgus to do something about Rick Curl. Wielgus definitely failed to act in that situation. You know who else failed to act? Mark Schubert.
It is unclear when Schubert gained knowledge of Curl, but presumably it was not all the way in 2006 when he began working for USA Swimming.
Schubert was almost continuously on the board of the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) from 1975-2010. He is currently listed on the ASCA board, although I do not know when he resumed that role.
ASCA named Rick Curl their "Coach of the Year" in 1994. If you go to ASCA's website, you can still read about all the great advice this child rapist has for developing your swim team.
Also, during the time period that Mark Schubert, whistleblower extraordinaire, was apparently trying to get something done about Rick Curl, he was elected President of ASCA. I wonder who else on the ASCA board "knew" about Rick Curl at that time.
It's important to remember as we move forward that USA Swimming and ASCA are impossible to separate. Over the years, board members have traded back and forth through both organizations, and ASCA is in many ways incorporated seamlessly into USA Swimming membership.
Mark Schubert wielded enormous power in both organizations, had knowledge that could have saved athletes from our abuse, and didn't do it. He had his chance to be a hero, go public, and put his coaching reputation on the line to do the right thing, and he didn't do it. Instead he tried time and time again to leverage it for personal gain. He is trying to do the same again.
Somewhere buried deep inside he must feel some guilt for that. I mean, I feel guilt for not writing about this issue for several years. I feel guilt for not realizing that Susan Woessner's work was just an extension of protecting Chuck Wielgus over protecting athletes.
Everybody should be accountable for what they did to contribute to the culture we have in swimming. Revisionist history only keeps us repeating the cycle, and completely unable to move on from where we are.