The email, addressed to the 13-year-old swimmer from the U.S. Center for SafeSport, came out of the blue. “Between approximately 2019 and 2022, you allegedly engaged in a pattern of behavior which constitutes Sexual Misconduct,” it read, with both final words capitalized.
That was in April 2022. It took three months for the 8th grader to learn what the accusations were: A claim he had slapped another teammate on the butt in a locker room 10 months earlier, in June 2021.
