COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, December 24. THE clock ran out on Mitch Ivey’s appeal window, and USA Swimming officially added him to its public Banned for Life list last night.
He was officially found to have violated Section 450.1 of the 1981-84 USA Swimming Rulebook, as newer rules cannot be applied retroactively.
450.1 GENERAL – As herein set forth, the Corporation may censure, suspend for a definite or indefinite period of time with or without terms of probation, or expel any member of the Corporation, including any athlete, coach, manager, official, member of any committee, or any person participating in any capacity whatsoever in the affairs of the Corporation, who has violated any of its rules or regulations, or who has acted in a manner which brings disrepute upon the Corporation or upon the sport of swimming. The Corporation may also conduct hearings on any matter affecting the Corporation as the national governing body for swimming.
Ivey, who competed for the U.S. at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, was first reported to have had a history of sexual misconduct 20 years ago during a 1993 Chicago Tribune article that detailed questions surrounding Ivey. These questions included a relationship with Suzette Moran when she was 16 and he was 33.
USA Swimming’s Safe Sport Division, just created a few years ago, first began investigation the potential to ban Ivey from the sport for life back in 2011. USA Swimming claimed this summer that it had interview nearly a dozen individuals, but had not yet yielded any first-hand knowledge of a code of conduct violation, a requirement for a case to be brought before the National Board of Review.
New evidence must have shown showed up in the past few months allowing USA Swimming to convene a National Board of Review a month ago to finally ban Ivey. News broke of the ban at the time, leading to the countdown of when Ivey would go on the public list.