Warning: if reading commenters blame sexual abuse victims for their abuse fills you with a boiling rage, do not click on the first link in this post.
It’s worth repeating every few weeks, but Swimswam should block comments whenever it reports on sexual abuse cases. While my primary argument for them doing this is to prevent people from trashing sexual abuse victims online, there are also situations in which the accused do not benefit from it.
Recently, Swimswam reported that the victim of former Carmel Swim Club and Carmel High School swim coach John Goelz filed a lawsuit. The suit names the school district, the Red Roof Inn, and Carmel Swim Club head coach Chris Plumb.
If you want a better idea of what the lawsuit is all about and want to avoid the bad comments, read the original Indy Star reporting.
I have spoken to several victims of sexual abuse who have read comments on their stories (despite being advised not to do). Of course the comments were deeply upsetting, but not only because of the personal injury. In each case, they also feared the comments would have a chilling effect on future reports of sexual abuse.
But this post is not primarily focused on arguing whether Swimswam should allow such comments. What i’d like to do is posit why I think commenters consistently come on to victim blame in such stories.
In this case, the commenter who goes the furthest, ranting about how the interaction between Goelz and his victim was “consensual” seems most upset about Plumb being named in the lawsuit.
To understand why someone would lash out so severely, you have to have a little inside baseball about coaching hierarchy in the US. Having coached in two countries, there is something very unique about the way top American coaches are elevated.
Make no mistake about it, Chris Plumb is a “big time” coach, even if Lauri Schumacher Rollings is correct that there are no big time swim coaches. He is in the Indiana Swimming Hall of Fame. Carmel Swim Club is a USA Swimming Gold Medal Club, the highest rating USA Swimming gives.
USA Swimming does not take child welfare into account of their rankings, which is why Nations Capital Aquatic Club, rebranded from Curl Burke Swim Club after much of the world finally discovered that Rick Curl was a pedophile, has consistently done well. Magnolia Aquatic Club, that employed Scott MacFarland and the recently unbanned Michael McCorvy, has also had a number of years as a “Gold Medal Club” before dropping down to Silver this year.
Back to Plumb. Carmel is also the dominant team in Indiana High School Swimming, in a state that is fairly mad for swimming. He’s represented team USA internationally as a coach. He has more followers on twitter than Swimswam editor Braden Keith. You get the picture.
Such coaches will always have ruthless defenders in the American system because we value competitive success so greatly. Plumb has been around plenty of really fast swimming, and despite how low the actual impact of coaches is on fast swimming, coaches can effectively build a cult of personality around them.
I’ve often told people that my time spent in Denmark was 50% the time of my life and 50% the most frustrating thing I’ve ever done. This dynamic was notably absent in Denmark, and sometimes I found myself frustrated with it. Coaches had far less leeway in their behavior. They could easily be checked by parents, board members or even young kids on their team.
At times I was flabbergasted at the political work it took to get decisions made. Ultimately, though, I think it’s better. When swimmers on a local team complained about a team director posting their training trip photos on facebook without their permission (after having been warned once), he was summarily fired and out of working with kids. As simple as that- no outcry or vicious attacks launched at the kids who spoke up.
I have no idea whether the accusations in this case are credible, thankfully we have a court of law to decide that. But in the court of public opinion, I believe one side has far more power than the other.