COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, September 19. USA Swimming has now added Rick Curl to its Banned for Life list effectively immediately.
Swimming World has learned that Curl not only waived his emergency board of review hearing last month, he has also waived his right to a National Board of Review hearing, thus accepting a permanent ban from USA Swimming.
In July, reports emerged that Curl was under investigation by USA Swimming after allegations surfaced that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with a swimmer and her parents in the 80s. This agreement, as stated by former swimmer Kelley Currin (Davies), was to cover-up allegations of sexual relations between Currin and Curl that began when she was 13 and he was 33.
Currin, in an article authored by Amy Shipley for the Washington Post prior to Shipley relocating to Florida, stated that Curl paid her family $150,000 as part of the non-disclosure agreement with that payment being broken up throughout 11 years with the family agreeing “not to press charges or speak publicly about (the situation)”.
In the Washington Post article, Shipley also reported that “Currin also said her parents, Gerald and Pamela Davies, learned of the alleged relationship when they read her diary soon before she left for the University of Texas on a swimming scholarship in 1987. She said they confronted Curl, but their attorney discouraged them from pursuing criminal action.”
Curl, a founder of Curl-Burke Swim Club in Washington, D.C., left the club shortly after the Washington Post report was published. The club has since rebranded twice, first renaming itself CUBU instead of Curl-Burke before announcing yesterday that it had completely changed its named to Nation's Capital Swim Club with the abbreviation to be NCAP, short for Nation's CAPital.
USA Swimming released the following statement to Swimming World regarding the ban:
USA Swimming has suspended for life former Curl-Burke Coach Rick Curl and added his name to the public list of banned individuals, it was announced today.
A chronology of the investigation and review preceding is below:
Rick Curl Investigation Chronology
1. April 2011: USA Swimming receives a report from a former swimmer who had heard from his roommate that Mr. Curl had an inappropriate relationship with a minor female swimmer in the 1980s and that a confidential legal settlement had been entered into. USA Swimming initiates an investigation.
2. April 2012: USA Swimming identifies and locates Kelly Currin. USA Swimming's Director of Safe Sport contacts Ms. Currin who agrees to file a complaint. USA Swimming's investigator interviews Ms. Currin. Investigation ongoing.
3. July 23, 2012: USA Swimming initiates a petition against Mr. Curl under its rules, seeking to temporarily suspend his membership at an emergency hearing, and to permanently ban him from membership and place his name on USA Swimming's published list of Individuals Permanently Suspended or Ineligible for USA Swimming membership.
4. August 1, 2012: Mr. Curl waives his right to an emergency hearing, and his USA Swimming membership is temporarily suspended by the USA Swimming National Board of Review, pending a final hearing on the action, set for September 19, 2012.*
5. September 18, 2012: Mr. Curl informs the National Board of Review that he is: voluntarily and permanently relinquishing his USA Swimming membership; waiving his right to a final National Board of Review hearing, and accepting the sanction requested by USA Swimming.*
6. September 18, 2012: The USA Swimming National Board of Review enters an order revoking Mr. Curl's membership, permanently banning him from membership; and directing that his name be placed on USA Swimming's published list of Individuals Permanently Suspended or Ineligible for USA Swimming Membership.
*The Amateur Sports Act requires that a member be afforded the opportunity for a hearing before being declared ineligible. The right to a hearing can be waived.
Currin's attorney, Robert Allard, released the following statement to Swimming World in response to the news:
Former Olympic Coach Rick Curl has been banned permanently from USA Swimming, apparently giving up his fight on the day of his National Board of Review hearing. Curl is now listed with some 60+ coaches on the USA Swimming banned list.
Kelley Davies Currin came forward publicly earlier this year with a signed settlement agreement with Curl's signature in which Curl agreed to pay her $150,000 in return for not going to law enforcement for allegedly molesting her starting when she was 13 years old in 1983.
Attorney Robert Allard who represents the victim has said from the onset that USA Swimming has known about Curl for years. Curl was referenced in the Jane Doe amended lawsuit filed in March of 2010. Despite USA Swimming having knowledge of Curl's rumored past, Curl attended this years U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha on a coaching credential.
Earlier this week Allard filed a lawsuit against former Olympic coach Mark Schubert. In that lawsuit it alleges that Schubert knew about Rick Curl's molestation of Kelley Davies Currin and that Schubert only in later years tried unsuccessfully to get USA Swimming to take action against Curl.
Statement from Kelley Davies Currin:
“I am happy to hear that Rick Curl may finally be starting to accept responsibility for what he did to me. I can now only hope that USA Swimming will accept responsibility for refusing to ban Rick Curl when they had knowledge to do so.”
Statement from attorney Robert Allard:
“The decision on behalf of Mr. Curl to capitulate without a public hearing conclusively demonstrates that each and every one of the allegations that my client presented are completely 100% true and accurate. The fact that Mr. Curl has now been permanently banned from USA membership is only the first of what we hope are many steps, including imprisonment, which will be taken against him to ensure that justice is served for the heinous acts committed upon my client when she was just a child. Now, we proceed to the extent of the knowledge possessed by USA Swimming and why action was not taken earlier. Indeed, in its statement that was issued by USA Swimming on September 18, 2012 concerning the Mark Schubert lawsuit recently filed in Orange County, CA, the organization saliently failed to deny, or even address, the allegations that its organization, particularly through its Executive Director Chuck Wielgus, had known about Mr. Curl's molestation of Ms. Currin for a number of years and failed to take any action whatsoever in response thereto. Mr. Curl was the proverbial Jerry Sandusky within this organization and, similar to Penn State immediately moving to rid itself of those who knew and did nothing, we are not going to stop until the same is done at USA Swimming, starting with Mr. Wielgus and the man who has admitted to knowing all about Mr. Curl going back to the early 1990's and failed to take effective action to protect young swimmers- Vice President David Berkoff.”