Claire Donahue spoke with the media today at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Mesa, Ariz., about a week after the Western Kentucky swimming and diving teams were suspended for five years as a result of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct on campus. Head swimming coach Bruce Marchionda was among the coaches fired, effective June 30.
Donahue, who has been a postgrad swimmer in Bowling Green since qualifying for the 2012 Olympic team in the 100 butterfly, said she will remain under Marchionda’s guidance and that the two are pursuing options for a new training location. The news comes three months before Donahue is set to compete at the world championships for the United States.
“It’s very sad that I have to move away from my home, where I’ve been for the past eight years,” Donahue said, adding that competing this week has helped keep her mind off the news.
Donahue became emotional when thinking about “everybody splitting up. This is my family, and it’s hard to see it. I’m glad they’re getting out there and they’re able to get picked up by other teams.”
She also said she was hurt by the negative comments directed toward the team, and questioned the decision to punish the women’s team. Looking ahead to training for the 2016 Olympic Trials, Donahue said her support staff, which includes more than Marchionda, will still be a part of her training and she is excited for the possibilities that lie ahead.
Watch the full interview in the video player below.
Claire Donahue is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is also the trains hard and is extremely disciplined in her sport. Every bit of success is well deserved ,and she and Bruce Marchionda have put Western Kentucky on the map when it comes to swimming. There are many on the swim team that are just like her and didn’t deserve pain and hardship that the team suspension caused for them.. I hope that the people that were in charge of making the decision to PUNISH the rest of the team for the bad behavior of a few, can look at themselves in the morning after seeing this video..
The team suspension didn’t cause the swim team pain and hardship.
Hazing and treating incoming freshman caused pain and hardship for the freshman which lead to the team suspension.
The team knew what was going on. After all, they were family, right?
Keep thinking positively, Claire Donahue!
Donahue is a class act, and an inspiring athlete. Nonetheless, unlike Leyla, I hope that it is the people who perpetrated these crimes, as well as the leadership that permitted it (since learning about it in 2012) who think twice when looking at themselves in the morning. I wish people would stop deflecting the seriousness of the accusations: if they are even partially true it would seem the team leadership is party to criminal behaviour. Blame them for the dissolution of the team, and for how innocent team members are being punished. In my opinion the outrage should be directed at hazing and humiliation, and the fact that it happened under the watch of coaches and team captains–not at the resulting penalties.
We don’t question the seriousness of the accusations. We question whether or not they are true, or at least not greatly inflated. Isn’t it interesting that of all the legitimately criminal accusations, the ONLY crime that has been charged is some low-level pot possession by one individual? Isn’t it interesting that as this story has been brewing for the past few months there was NEVER an accusation against our women, but they were blindsided when their program was also cut? Tell me ONE time in the history of the NCAA when a program got such a death sentence like this one. It all just seems a little too opportunistic to me…
:-*
From what I understand, there are a NUMBER of false claims on the email that the police dropped… I don’t know why the media isn’t covering that. I also think it’s very fishy that the women’s team was not accused of anything in the email and not investigated in the police report yet they were cut exactly like the men. There has to be more to this than just a hazing scandal exactly like the one at UK last year when all that resulted in was 4 boys being suspended… Sounds like WKU was trying to save some money to me.
Shame on the university to not protect their athletes and their sports. This would not happen in the wonderful world of football
There is a consistency of admittance that there was hazing even in this interview “a few people’s actions”. If there was only a few people, why did an entire team allow it to continue until “one person’s view” of it being wrong was the only one to come forward to put an end to it?