Janelle Atkinson-Wignall was the coach tapped to lead Stony Brook’s return to women’s varsity swimming in February 2017. Within a year, though, the Jamaican Olympian was dismissed amid allegations of abusive behavior.
Now the 37-year-old is suing Stony Brook for its role in her termination.
Atkinson-Wignall brought suit in Brooklyn Federal Court this week, alleging that Stony Brook’s administration ignored systemic issues and failed to investigate accusations against her that were “demonstrably false” in the rationale for her firing.
The Stony Brook program was placed on a “competitive hiatus” after the 2012-13 season as part of a multimillion dollar facilities renovation. Atkinson-Wignall was tasked with reconstituting the program when she was hired, arriving on Long Island after three seasons as the men’s and women’s head coach at Fairfield University and stints as an assistant at Wright State and the University of Connecticut.
But Atkinson-Wignall and assistant coach Jordan Bowen were quietly dismissed in January of 2018 with no university release (nor was there any mention when Kerry Smith was hired as her replacement in May of that year). When Atkinson-Wignall was fired, only six of the original 13 members of the team remained.
“What started out as a dream quickly turned into a nightmare as Coach Janelle broke our trust and our spirits,” wrote one swimmer, Tess Stepakoff, for Stony Brook’s student newspaper, The Statesman. “We were told that we were weak, that we were not enough and we were not trying. We were cursed at and screamed at during every practice for months. As our physical and mental health declined, we were told to get over it. If we had to miss practice for injuries or illnesses, our spots on the team were threatened. Some of us who were strong enough to stay fought for change. Some chose to leave and some were bullied into quitting.”
Swimmers at some of Atkinson-Wignall’s previous stops corroborated the experiences of Stepakoff and others.
But Atkinson-Wignall refutes those charges in the suit. She alleges that Stony Brook “overreacted” to complaints by not investigating them fully and that the university overlooked the fact that swimmers in the new program “were not prepared for the level of commitment required of competition at the Division 1 level.”
Atkinson-Wignall competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics for Jamaica. She finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle in Sydney, in a national-record 4:08.79 that missed the podium by less than a second. She competed in the 200 and 400 free in Athens four years later. She also was part of ESPN’s commentary team covering the 2016 Rio Olympics.
I know Janelle….she is a competitor. She is an Olympian and desires the best from her swimmers. Janelle is a reflection of her past coaches. Soft current athletes will disagree. Is she tough….yes. That’s what Olympians demand. She started a program at SBU with less than Div. I swimmers. She did her best and executes at a high level. I have no problem with her being demanding. She knows what she is doing. Language and lexicon is is standard in swimming world.