The main defendant in a USA Diving lawsuit insists the allegations against the organization don’t hold water.

USA Diving is the U.S. Olympic Committee’s governing body for Olympic diving, and has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit regarding alleged sexual abuse by an Indiana diving club coach.

Johel Ramirez Suarez is the coach, who was fired and pleaded guilty to three counts of battery and to sexual abuse in 2018. He was a diving coach at RipFest Diving, an academy run by former U.S. Olympic team coach John Wingfield.

Previously the diving team coach for the Venezuelan Olympic team, Suarez moved to the United States seeking asylum back in 2015.

Suarez was sentenced to about 17 months in county jail and banned from coaching by USA Diving.

USA Diving Lawsuit Allegations

The USA Diving lawsuit alleges that at a minimum, one person who is employed by USA Diving knew that Suarez had committed sexual abuse, but continued to promote RipFest, where Suarez allegedly sexually assaulted at least two divers and a female diving coach. The latter is the only remaining Jane Doe plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Wingfield and the diving academy dismissed a number of complaints that Suarez had been sexually abuse. Plaintiff Doe, who lived in a diving club’s dorm, said Suarez sexually assaulted her more than once in her room.

Suarez reportedly admitted to police that he had touched one young woman’s vagina three different times to see what her reaction would be. These assaults reportedly occurred during either athletic stretching or massaging sessions.

North Central High School in the Washington Township School District said Suarez also had been an assistant diving coach there, but his employment was terminated upon his arrest. The district issued a statement that said they did not have any reports that any students from North Central had been victimized by Suarez.

USA Diving said that even though RipFest is a member of USA Diving that the Olympic Committee is not in a position to hire or manage employees at RipFest.

“On its face, it is difficult to imagine how USA Diving could ever be liable for criminal or harassing acts of Suarez against Doe done in the context of their work. In spite of this logic, Doe sued USA Diving because Doe and Suarez had paid and voluntarily joined USA Diving membership as coach members,” wrote USA Diving representatives in the summary judgment motion. “Literally, that is it.”

Sexual Abuse of Athletes

USA Diving is on the same level of the Olympic realm as USA Gymnastics, which is now infamous for the decades of abuse that was allowed to continue by Larry Nassar, the former gymnastics team doctor. Nassar will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was sentenced to 175 years plus an extra 40 to 125 years back in 2018. More than 500 women and girls have said Nassar sexually abused them between the years 1992 and 2015.

USA Gymnastics is a named defendant in litigation filed by about 140 gymnasts and other athletes who say the organization continued to employ Nassar and promote him as a trusted physician despite purportedly knowing he had been accused of sexual assault.

The USA Diving lawsuit alleges Wingfield allowed RipFest’s diving atmosphere to become “a culture that tolerated sexual harassment, objectification, assault and abuse” when he refused to stop Suarez despite knowing he was “known to prey on young athletes.”

After receiving several complaints of sexual misconduct against Suarez, Wingfield purportedly told the female divers that because Suarez was from Venezuela, his origins were an excuse for his behavior because “that is just how they are.”

Other named defendants include Wingfield, Suarez, RipFest, and the owner of the academy’s property, Arcadia Church Events & Sports LLC. According to court documents, each party filed companion summary judgment motions that if granted would end the claims against them.

Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017

Discovering allegations of sexual and physical abuse of American athletes in gymnastics, swimming, diving and other sports, the U.S. Congress passed the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017, which provides the U.S. Center for SafeSport with the authority to respond to sexual abuse allegations made within the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Movement.

SafeSport has developed national policies and procedures to protect amateur athletes from physical, sexual and emotional abuse. SafeSport also has “discretionary jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis over any other forms of misconduct, including bullying, harassment, physical and emotional abuse.”

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.