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USA Swimming to hold emergency hearing on coach Rick Curl

By Amy Shipley,July 31, 2012

Rick Curl of the Curl-Burke Swim Club is shown in a 1998 photo. (James A. Parcell/THE WASHINGTON…)

An emergency hearing to consider whether to suspend Rick Curl’s USA Swimming coaching credentials will be conducted Wednesday, according to an e-mail from a USA Swimming attorney obtained by the Post.

The hearing comes in the wake of allegations that Curl engaged in sexual acts with a teen girl who swam at his Curl-Burke Swim Club for four years in the late-1980s. Kelley Currin, whose maiden name was Kelley Davies, told The Washington Post that Curl began the sexual acts with her when she was 13.

Currin said Tuesday that she will not participate in the hearing but has had initial talks with detectives from Fairfax and Montgomery County.

USA Swimming spokesperson Jamie Fabos Olsen said the organization’s rules require a decision on any emergency hearing within 21 days. Action taken would be pending a full disciplinary hearing before USA Swimming’s National Board of Review. Curl faces a possible lifetime ban from the sport.

Curl’s attorney, Thomas J. Kelly, declined to comment.

Curl, who took a temporary leave of absence from the Curl-Burke Swim Club last week, signed a nondisclosure agreement with Currin and her parents in 1989, agreeing to pay them $150,000 over 11 years in exchange for their neither pursuing criminal charges nor speaking publicly about the matter. The agreement includes an attachment that includes specific allegations of sexual abuse.

Currin provided that document to USA Swimming and gave a statement to an investigator from the organization, she said. She contends that should provide sufficient evidence to ban Curl, who coached U.S. Olympic champion Tom Dolan and other prominent D.C. area swimmers.

The Curl-Burke Swim Club, which Curl founded in 1978, is one of the largest swimming clubs in the nation. Pete Morgan has taken over operations in Curl’s absence.