Safe Sports, USA Swimming and the Laramie Swim Club

USA Swimming is committed to fostering a fun, healthy, and safe environment for all its members, and in 2010, it formally implemented a comprehensive Safe Sport program to respond to and prevent instances of abuse and misconduct within the sport of swimming.  Since then USA Swimming Safe Sport has worked tirelessly to educate members, put policies in place, and empower LSCs and clubs to create the best possible environments for all members.

USA Swimming is committed to safeguarding all of its members with the welfare of its athlete members as top priority. Safe Sport is USA Swimming’s comprehensive abuse prevention program and provides tools for swim clubs to educate their members and intervene in risky situations.

 

Laramie Swim Club SafeSport Documents

 

The following Best Practice Guidelines are strongly recommended for all USA Swimming members. 

1. Parents should be encouraged to appropriately support their children’s swimming experience. 

2. All swimming practices should be open to observation by parents. 

3. Coaches should not initiate contact with or accept supervisory responsibility for athletes outside club programs and activities. 

4. When only one athlete and one coach travel to a competition, at the competition the coach and athlete should attempt to establish a “buddy” club to associate with during the competition and when away from the venue.

 5. Relationships of a peer-to-peer nature with any athletes should be avoided. For example, coaches should avoid sharing their own personal problems with athletes. 

6. Coaches and other non-athlete adult members should avoid horseplay and roughhousing with athletes. 7. When a coach touches an athlete as part of instruction, the coach should do so in direct view of others and inform the athlete of what he/she is doing prior to the initial contact. Touching athletes should be minimized outside the boundaries of what is considered normal instruction. Appropriate interaction would include high fives, fist bumps, side-to-side hugs and handshakes. 

8. Coaches should avoid having athletes as their favorites. They should also avoid creating a situation that could be perceived as them having favorites. 

9. Gift-giving, providing special favors or showing favoritism to individual athletes is strongly discouraged.

The Laramie Swim Club fully endorses and supports USA Swimming’s Safe Sport and Safety programs by helping to provide these resources for our club members:

If you have experienced or witnessed abuse or misconduct—or if you have reasonable suspicion of abuse or misconduct inflicted on, or by, someone within the Laramie Swim Club Organization don't hesitate to get in touch with any of the LSC Coaches or Board Members. 

You can also report directly to USA Swimming or the US Center for SafeSport at:

U.S. Center for Safe Sports Help Line at (833) 5US-SAFE (587-7233)

Team Safe Sport Contact Michele Caputo- [email protected]