Safe Sport Information

There are a lot of great reasons to swim – at any level. As a life‐long activity, people often swim to have fun and spend time with friends. Swimming also encourages a healthy lifestyle and builds self‐confidence. Swimmers even benefit from the sport out of the water. They learn goal‐setting, teamwork and time management skills.

Unfortunately, sports, including swimming, can also be a high‐risk environment for misconduct, including physical and sexual abuse. All forms of misconduct are intolerable and in direct conflict with the values of USA Swimming.

Misconduct may damage an athlete’s psychological well‐being. Athletes who have been mistreated experience social embarrassment, emotional turmoil, psychological scars, loss of self‐esteem and negative impacts on their relationships with family, friends and the sport. Misconduct often hurts an athlete’s competitive performance and may cause him or her to drop out of our sport entirely.

USA Swimming is committed to fostering a fun, healthy and safe sport environment for all its members. We all must recognize that the safety of swimmers lies with all those involved in the sport and is not the sole responsibility of any one person at the club, LSC, or national level. USA Swimming and the Fishers Area Swimming Tigers are committed to safeguarding all our members with the welfare of its athlete members as top priority.
 

Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies
The U.S. Center for SafeSport is a separate, independent organization that oversees all sexual misconduct in Olympic sports. They created the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP) to set a baseline for acceptable safety standards governing interactions between adults and minor athletes. The FAST Board of Directors adopted these Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies at their June Board meeting. Please read through MAAPP to see how the club, your athlete, and your family will be affected by these new policies.

To help navigate these new policies, USA Swimming has provided a number of resources to help clubs, coaches, athletes, and parents understand the new requirements put in place by MAAPP. Please take some time to review USA Swimming's updated FAQ's and view their mini-webinars.


Adult Athlete APT Membership Requirement
Starting September 1, 2023, all adult athlete members of USA Swimming (athletes ages 18 and over) will be required to complete the Athlete Protection Training (APT) as a condition of membership. Adult athletes will be given 30 days to complete the training. Starting September 1, 2023, any adult athlete who has not completed APT will not be a USA Swimming athlete member in good standing. Similarly, athletes who turn 18 years old after June 23 will be given 30 days after their 18th birthday to complete the training.

 

SafeSport Certification
In order to become a SafeSport certified team, we are asking that FAST parents and athletes over 12 take a few minutes to watch the SafeSport videos: SafeSport for Parents and SafeSport for Minor Athletes. Simply log on to the USA Swimming website (Directions) and complete the course. The free training only takes about 10 to 12 minutes to complete.

 

Report a SafeSport Issue

If you feel that you have experienced or are a witness to a SafeSport violation, please contact our club's SafeSport Coordinator Heather Lee and/or contact USA Swimming at (833) 866-4578 or the U.S. Center for Safe Sport via phone (833) 5US-SAFE / (833) 587-7233 or via online reporting form or find more information at http://www.uscenterforsafesport.org/.

Concerns should be reported to USA Swimming (719) 866-4578 Deal with a Safe Sport Concern.

Text anonymous tips to 888-270-SWIM (7946).

  

If you have any questions regarding FAST's Safe Sport policies, please contact the FAST Safe Sport Coordinator, Heather Lee.


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