The U.S. Center for Safe Sport has banned a former KING Aquatic Club swim coach from the sport for life owing to findings of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to a report by the Orange County Register.
The U.S. Center for Safe Sport has banned a former KING Aquatic Club swim coach from the sport for life owing to findings of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to a report by the Orange County Register.
The U.S. Olympic and USA Swimming national team coach, Sean Hutchison, now 47, was found to have engaged in various acts of sexual misconduct with Federal Way native Ariana Kukors Smith, now 29, according to a Safe Sport investigation. Kukors, who swam at Auburn Mountainview High School and the University of Washington, is a former world record holder in the 200-meter individual medley, an event she finished fifth in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
“The Safe Sport investigation found that Hutchison molested Kukors Smith, had her perform oral sex on him and took nude photos of her when she was still a minor, according to a Safe Sport findings and recommendation report,” The Orange County Register reports.
The U.S. Center for Safe Sport is an independent nonprofit committed to ending all forms of abuse in sports.
In February, Kukors Smith came forward with her story, accusing Hutchison of sexual abuse when she was a minor.
As a teenager, Kukors Smith allegedly first swam for Hutchison on KING Aquatics Club.
Posted to her website on Feb. 9, 2018, Kukors Smith recounts her decade-long story involving Hutchison.
“When I was 13, just on the cusp of making the USA National Team, I was handed off to a new coach, Sean Hutchison,” she writes. “Sean was an up and coming coach with a great reputation and we were excited to have him at King Aquatic Club. … The grooming started immediately.”
For years, she writes, Hutchison controlled her daily life, swimming career, college path and more, claiming the relationship turned sexual when she was 16 and he was 34.
The Orange County Register states the Safe Sport investigation also found “Hutchison had sexual intercourse with Kukors Smith shortly after her 18th birthday while he was still her coach.”
In May of 2018, Kukors Smith filed a civil suit with the Orange County Superior Court claiming top USA Swimming officials, coaches, and others in the swimming community ignored and covered up the claims against Hutchison for sexual abuse.
The civil suit was filed against Hutchison, USA Swimming, former U.S. national team director Mark Schubert, King Aquatic Club, Hutchison’s Seattle-area club, and Aquatic Management Group Inc, a company owned by Hutchison, according to the article.
Hutchison is currently under “ongoing” investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, and his apartment near Seattle was searched in February when Kukors Smith went public with her story, the Orange County Register reports.
