The National Board of Review. This is the process that USA Swimming has used to adjudicate complaints of sexual abuse that they receive. It's a process that most USA Swimming members know next to nothing about.

In this podcast, Sarah Ehekircher and I discuss her NBOR in 2010, what motivated her to start the process, and the nasty surprises she found when the kangaroo court was actually convened:

In the second of three parts with Sarah Ehekircher, we go a lot of directions. Be sure to check back with Part 1 so you can hear the beginning of her story. Sarah talks about her years living with (and periodically away from Scott MacFarland)

The story is sad, for sure, but there are a lot of things here that resonate for people regardless of their experience. Sarah how her perception of her body got distorted, something all too common among athletes. She also has some interesting things to say about people that were in the position to help her and what they did and didn't do. Enjoy:

Today the first of three parts with Sarah Ehekircher. Sarah is a swim coach who I've been writing about, alongside Irvin Muchnick with whom she first shared her story. On May 1st she has a private meeting with Tim Hinchey, the CEO and President of USA Swimming.

Over these podcasts I want to give listeners a chance to hear from Sarah herself and get a deeper look at her story. In this first part, we talk about her early childhood, when she started swimming, and then the sequence of events that led to her moving in with her swim coach, Scott MacFarland, towards the end of her junior year of high school. A warning for listeners, Sarah does mention MacFarland's first sexual advance on her towards the end of the podcast. 

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Today I talk to Dirk Marshal. Dirk was an accomplished swimmer in his day who has taken a different route to starting a unique kind of team. We talk about his club, the Bridge Bats and how he came to form it the way he did.

Later we discuss Sarah Ehekircher and how we've both come to know her and join Sarah's posse. Dirk shares a really good argument on how we can stand up for what's right in swimming. Enjoy.

This week a special hiring season podcast with friend of the brief Nico Messer. Nico has been on a lot of the episodes since the pod started back up again, and it's great to have him back once more.

We talk about the season from both the perspective of someone doing the hiring and someone looking for a job. We tell you everything we've learned from getting jobs, and not getting them. Enjoy. 

Today I snuck in a conversation with Chuck Batchelor, while he was at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Chuck is currently the head coach and owner of Bluefish Swim Club in the New England LSC.

I ask Chuck about how he got started, and how he went from a swim coaching plying his trade to owner of the most successful team in New England.

Finally, we get into a very polite discussion about training methods and reputations for training methods. Enjoy:

Today's guest is Matt Finnigan. Matt is a different kind of swim coach who founded a different kind of swim team on the West Side of Salt Lake City. I was really excited to hear his story and how he was able to build a more inclusive squad despite some of the barriers that have kept swimming from being a diverse sport.

The Club he founded, Race Swami, aims to make a difference, and they've done just that, expanding from humble beginnings to serve 80 athletes

You can read more about Race Swami here

Bonus pod! Today I try to extend the excitement of NCAAs by talking with a coach at the hottest team in college swimming, Indiana University. Mark Hill joined the Hoosiers before the start of this college year. He had previously won a men's NCAA title as part of Michigan's squad in 2013.

We talk about the crazy, amazing spectacle that NCAAs is, what he learned in his year away from college swimming, and I formally ask him if there's still space for me on the IU bandwagon. Enjoy. 

Today I talk to elite Masters swimmer and former National Champion Susan Williams. Williams has a world record in her age group, and we talk about her life growing up swimming in the DC area. Williams was the first National Champion that disgraced coach Rick Curl ever coached.

We talk about her recollections of the time, including finding out that Curl was sexually abusing her teammate, Kellie Davies Currin, and Susan does some brutally honest self-examination of how she dealt with the knowledge and the subsequent aftermath. We also do our best to bust up the "great coach" narrative that often works against victims of sexual abuse:

Today another guest that I've wanted to have for a long time. Irvin Muchnick has been doing outstanding work covering corruption and abuse in American swimming. He's soent a lot of the past few years breaking stories and doing legwork that often finds its way later to bigger publications, uncredited.

Irv and I talk for a long time, almost 80 minutes, and we cover the big picture as well as the the story that he has spent the last few years with intense focus on: former Irish Olympic coach George Gibney, who is still living in the US and evading justice for the terrible crimes he stands accused of in his home country. Enjoy

To catch up on Irv's work, go here.