Underwater: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and around the Globe

by Irvin Muchnick

Overview

“Horrifying stuff that we desperately need to know.” — Scott Ostler, sports columnist, San Francisco Chronicle

Backed by hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of USA Swimming files subpoenaed by the FBI, Irvin Muchnick uncovers a generation of cover-ups involving some of the sport’s biggest names

The hundreds of millions who watch the thrilling spectacle of the Olympics are unaware of the extent to which their entertainment is undergirded by the systematic abuse by coaches of the underage athletes they develop. Many flag-waving fans gained some sense of the problem from the USA Gymnastics scandals, but for generations, the crimes in swimming have caused a much wider tsunami of pain and trauma around the world.

Backed by thousands of pages of FBI files and the author’s independent investigations, Underwater is the first comprehensive account of this ongoing and unacceptable phenomenon. Irvin Muchnick, a well-known chronicler of the dark side of sports, pulls together shocking stories involving some of the most iconic coaches in swimming history and some of the sport’s most celebrated programs — including Michael Phelps’s. The book lays the blame not just at the feet of individual villains but also at a system that casually commodifies and sexualizes the vulnerable and non-consenting, prioritizing the pursuit of athletic scholarships, Olympic medals, glory, and riches.

Underwater arrives just as a congressional commission has called for the first fundamental changes in the U.S. youth sports system in half a century. In the author’s estimation, this reform is the only real way to protect kids from the predation of the money-first stewards of professionalized sports.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770417755
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Edition description:	No Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	738,428
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Irvin Muchnick is the author of Wrestling Babylon, Chris & Nancy, Concussion Inc., and Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads: The American Way of Death in Football Conditioning. He has written articles for the New York Times, Salon, the Washington Monthly, People, Spy, Sports Illustrated, and other major outlets, as well as for Ireland’s Broadsheet and Village magazine and San Francisco’s Beyond Chron. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2024

USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, has a sordid history of looking the other way when coaches sexually abuse athletes, according to this searing report. Detailing how abusers evade accountability, journalist Muchnick (Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads) describes how after national team director Everett Uchiyama’s sexual abuse of a 16-year-old athlete came to light in 2006, USA Swimming club development director Pat Hogan, who was himself the subject of a sexual assault complaint in the 1980s, kept the scandal quiet and helped the coach secure a cushy position as a country club aquatics director. The stories of abuse survivors make clear that such underhanded dealings have long been unwritten policy at USA Swimming. For instance, Muchnick discusses how Sarah Ehekircher, who was raped by her high school coach in the 1980s, was among the first athletes to file a complaint with USA Swimming’s Safe Sport department, which dismissed Ehekircher’s allegations after a perfunctory hearing. Former USA Swimming director Chuck Wielgus comes in for particular opprobrium for hiring a lobbying firm in 2013 to defeat a California bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims. The subject matter makes for grim reading, but the abhorrent institutional wrongdoing Muchnick uncovers deserves to be widely known. This will make waves. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The subject matter makes for grim reading, but the abhorrent institutional wrongdoing Muchnick uncovers deserves to be widely known. This will make waves.” — Publishers Weekly

“This is a powerful reminder of the need to speak truth to power and to keep sports practices healthy and safe.” — Booklist

“Irvin Muchnick made my carefully selected list of personal heroes long ago. Nobody rakes the muck, nobody shines a searchlight on human cockroaches with a more relentless sense of purpose than Irvin does. Underwater is a shining example of his work. It’s horrifying stuff that we desperately need to know.” — Scott Ostler, sports columnist, San Francisco Chronicle

“It may take wide readership of Underwater to push parents to demand reforms that better protect their families. Those involved in such programs should be sure to read this book.” — Beyond Chron

From the Publisher