Thus article has been front page on espn.com for many hours but who Shelby Houlihan is dating is the hot thread? There’s way more serious track news:
Thus article has been front page on espn.com for many hours but who Shelby Houlihan is dating is the hot thread? There’s way more serious track news:
I am sick to my stomach reading this. I coach a high school team and I cant imagine what sick twisted brain could do this.
This stuff keeps making the news and it’s making me want to vomit. Why are there so many perverts out there?
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the article this morning. how is this not on the homepage. the guy coached Felix Sanchez and other Olympians and was coaching athletes at UCLA'S track. I can't believe someone can get away with this for so long.
If you are a member of USATF you get email notifications of this behavior almost monthly although not to this level. This guy is truly sick.
In 2018 SafeSport sanctioned or have pending stations on 55 - 60 individuals for criminal disposition or criminal disposition with a minor. Meaning some sort of sexual contact or behavior. I think they are going back and sanctioning those on Megan’s List but not 100% sure. This is the type of topic we need to discuss here. Coaches are entrusted with young athletes bodies, minds and dreams we can’t sweep stuff like this under the rug
What a horrible human being. Sexual seduction of all those kids just like Michael Jackson
Another great job by ESPN Outside the Lines investigative reporting.
This whole story shows how powerful the Internet (like LRC) is in tracking down these sex pervs.
The blog item, probably read largely by close friends and family, sat dormant for a year. Then the strangest thing happened: A childhood friend of De Santo's named Glenn Stephens chimed in under the comments section, using an alias.
"Speaking of the UK," Stephens wrote, "I have some Conrad Mainwaring gossip for you!"
At the time that Stephens made his 2011 remark on De Santo's blog, Mainwaring was mostly invisible on the internet, despite having been an Olympian who coached Sanchez to a gold medal in 2004. Anyone who Googled him found little. But Stephens' blog comment would prove to be a beacon for anyone typing in Mainwaring's name. The first to speak up, in 2013, was Brian, the man who says he was molested by Mainwaring when he was an 18-year-old freshman at Colgate.
Mr. Shankly wrote:
Thus article has been front page on espn.com for many hours but who Shelby Houlihan is dating is the hot thread? There’s way more serious track news:
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/27244072/44-years-41-allegations-how-caught-former-olympian
He better be prepared to see a lot of ?
Anyone who thought it was limited to gymnastics 1) has not been reading much or aware of much and 2) is pretty naive.
Primo Numero Uno wrote:
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the article this morning. how is this not on the homepage. the guy coached Felix Sanchez and other Olympians and was coaching athletes at UCLA'S track. I can't believe someone can get away with this for so long.
My guess is that you have not followed the scandals in other sports very closely then. I suggest a podcast about Larry Nassar. It is a very good. It is called "Believed".
For one thing, the coach is in a power position. Kids sometimes were/are not believed. Threats are made.
For boys, there might be an additional level of embarrassment of being sexual abused by a guy.
PWay Runner wrote:
If you are a member of USATF you get email notifications of this behavior almost monthly although not to this level. This guy is truly sick.
In 2018 SafeSport sanctioned or have pending stations on 55 - 60 individuals for criminal disposition or criminal disposition with a minor. Meaning some sort of sexual contact or behavior. I think they are going back and sanctioning those on Megan’s List but not 100% sure. This is the type of topic we need to discuss here. Coaches are entrusted with young athletes bodies, minds and dreams we can’t sweep stuff like this under the rug
And SafeSport has a pretty big backlog of cases. It is still underfunded and understaffed.
PWay Runner wrote:
If you are a member of USATF you get email notifications of this behavior almost monthly although not to this level. This guy is truly sick.
In 2018 SafeSport sanctioned or have pending stations on 55 - 60 individuals for criminal disposition or criminal disposition with a minor. Meaning some sort of sexual contact or behavior. I think they are going back and sanctioning those on Megan’s List but not 100% sure. This is the type of topic we need to discuss here. Coaches are entrusted with young athletes bodies, minds and dreams we can’t sweep stuff like this under the rug
They can only sanction coaches who are USATF members. The real numbers are more than 10x that amount.
SafeSport knew about Mainwaring before the criminal charges came out. They couldn't do anything.
Our sport has normalized these private coaches who exist under no one's umbrella. We have coaches banned by SafeSport still coaching privately. The ban keeps them away from USATF sanctioned events, and prevents them from getting insurance through USATF, but they can't really stop someone from coaching on their own.
Mainwaring is the perfect example of why we need SafeSport. As of the report, they only have one incident that was chargeable, and since it involved an adult, the sentence will be light relative to the gravity of his decades of abuse. The judge can consider the other allegations in sentencing, but they generally have to stay within the sentencing range for the crime they are actually convicted of.
They were within a few months of the statute of limitations ending on the one case that was charged. This easily could have been a story about a man who molested dozens of men and never had criminal charges.
Mainwaring is also the perfect example of how little we can do to stop predators in our sport. Most of our sport exists outside of USATF's umbrella. NFHS has their head in the sand. NCAA turns a blind eye. AAU has a handbook similar to our SafeSport handbook, but any enforcement is secret, rendering it fairly worthless.
There is no simple solution, but a good first step is that facilities need to start requiring any private coaches to be SafeSport compliant USATF members so that there is some accountability if they abuse an athlete but fall short of the high standards for criminal charges.
There is a free training for parents at Safesport.org, I really recommend any parents reading this take it.
Happens at all levels. Even community colleges. Greg and Doug must be sweating....
Agreed that SafeSport can only do so much I looked at what USA Cycling does because if it happens in Track & Field I’m sure you have predators in cycling as well. They are too focus on Drug cheats. The private coaching business is way too of of control to keep track of stuff like this.
The internet can only do so much to keep the word out .... You never know who is running sites and removing content. You just have to keep spreading the substantiated information.
I couldn’t even read the whole article. This guy is disgusting.
CousinPookie wrote:
How did he get away with it for so long? This guy was in a protected class of people. Question their behavior and then they counter with the R-word (racist)and you become the villain.
You are a piece of sh!t. Not too mention a friggin idiot, thinking that being a black male makes is easier for him to get away with this. Go back to your trash Fox News and pretend that you as a white male are somehow a victim because others want rights that you feel you should only have, you piece of sh!t!
CousinPookie wrote:
How did he get away with it for so long? This guy was in a protected class of people. Question their behavior and then they counter with the R-word (racist)and you become the villain.
He got away with it for so long because he was a lone wolf. For the most part, in the past 30 years or so, he did not work for any schools or clubs. There was never any accountability.
Facility owners need to stop allowing lone wolves to use their facilities. You don't have to have a USATF registered club... anyone can join USATF, take the background check and SafeSport training and become SafeSport compliant. Then parents have a public way of knowing that the coach has passed a background check and can be held accountable if the coach violates the SafeSport code.
Parents need to be demanding that any club coaches they work with do this.
Even AAU club coaches, because AAU is garbage and has no public enforcement of their policies, really no one has any idea if there is any accountability for AAU coaches who do inappropriate things... and because AAU does not share that information, if there are no criminal charges or public allegations, there is nothing to stop an AAU coach who violates AAU's SafeSport-like policies from becoming a USATF club coach.
AAU does not recognize SafeSport, there is nothing to stop a coach who is banned by SafeSport but lacks a criminal conviction from becoming an AAU coach. Or a HS coach. Or a college coach (NCAA volleyball has several coaches banned by SafeSport). You can look at all the problems we have had with people banned by USADA coaching at these other levels, we will see more of the same with SafeSport as our banned list grows.
It's not just sports. It's probably less in sports than in other areas. Twisted evil is out there in life. Family members, neighbors, teachers, priests, etc.
It's really the parent's responsibility to protect their kids and be on guard. That is your first job as a parent. That's where it all starts. All of the other programs are good, but they are "extra". You can't slack as a parent. You have to be vigilant and involved. It's easy to slack and get lazy about this stuff. It's understandable, but you can't do it. That doesn't mean that you will catch everything, but if you are on your game you will catch a lot, you will notice things that are not right. It's usually out there if you are paying attention. Not always, but usually.