COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming and its Safe Sport program are committed to fostering a fun, healthy, and safe environment for all of its members. To help increase awareness and reduce the risk of abuse, Safe Sport has launched a new online course to help parents and coaches identify and address bullying behaviors.
The online program is free for USA Swimming non-athlete members. It can be accessed at www.usaswimming.org/SafeSport. Lessons include:
How to define bullying
Why bullying is a problem
What the different types of bullying are
How bullying happens
How to prevent an athlete from being bullied
How to manage conflict between the individuals involved
Bullying behaviors lead to a negative team environment if not handled properly and quickly. Unfortunately, they can be alarmingly normal in youth sports settings.
“We have learned that education is arguably the most effective tool in athlete protection, including in bullying prevention,” said Susan Woessner, USA Swimming Director of Safe Sport. “We are committed to fostering a fun, healthy, and safe environment for all of our members. Part of the education process is to help our 400,000 members identify potential bullying, report questionable behavior and, most importantly, prevent it from happening in the first place.”
Accompanying the anti-bullying training is access to resources for swim teams to prevent or address bullying – including a model anti-bullying plan, a peer-to-peer safety plan, and a scenario guide to assist coaches with recognizing bullying behaviors.
“USA Swimming’s first priority is to protect our members. This is a partnership between our national office, clubs, coaches, parents and the athletes,” said USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus. “Safe Sport has demonstrated an organization-wide commitment to setting the standard for athlete protection. This anti-bullying course continues to further that commitment by providing valuable tools to reduce the risk of abusive situations.”
The success of USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program revolves around six core areas:
Policies & Guidelines
Screening & Selection
Training & Education
Monitoring and Supervision
Recognizing, Reporting and Responding
Grassroots Engagement & Feedback
USA Swimming has partnered with Praesidium, a leading provider in the field of child protection, to produce and distribute comprehensive athlete protection education programming. USA Swimming requires mandatory athlete education training programs for non-athlete members.
Swimming news courtesy of USA Swimming.
Following is a response from USA Swimming National Events Director, Dean Ekeren: At next summer’s Olympic Trials, NBC will be using virtual graphics to indicate lane assignments, so additional lane identification will not be necessary. For the Phillips 66 National Championships in San Antonio, we requested the identical lane lines that we expect to use for Trials (i.e. the red, white, and blue color scheme) through our partners at Competitor. If the USA Swimming Steering Committee feels that alternate colors are necessary for the middle lanes, that is something we can certainly accommodate for future USA Swimming championships.
Dear Chuck,
Thanks for replying. I’m glad you and your team are keeping an open mind regarding using solid color lane lines in future big meets.
Virtual graphics are big help in helping the off-site spectator (TV viewer, YouTube streamer, etc.) keep track of what’s going on during the course of a swimming race. But typically they’re used only at the start of a race, at the race’s finish, and occasionally at key transition points in the middle or if a world record is threatened (in which case viewers are treated to the beloved “moving red line”). Virtual graphics do nothing for the on-site spectators.
As I already mentioned, the solid-color lane lines make it significantly easier to follow… Read more »
The new on-line USA Swimming Anti-bullying course link does not appear to be working.
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for your response. Do you mean you will be using ones in which each lane line is comprised of red, white, and blue disks, such that all lanes look identical?
Or do you mean that the lines used in lanes 3-5 are a solid color (say red), lanes two and six are white, and the outer lanes are blue?
If you mean the former, that is unfortunate from the spectator’s point of view. After the swimmers are in the water, it can be difficult to “read” the pool, that is, quickly grasp which athlete is which lane when all of the lane lines are identical. This is especially problematic when viewing on TV, for example… Read more »
We’ll be using red, white and blue lane lines in San Antonio for the Phillips 66 National Championships. We’ll likely do the same for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials next summer in Omaha. CW
Off-topic.
Question for Susan Woessner and Chuck Wielgus: “Do you know if US Swimming is planning to use different color lane lines (like those used in the Olympics and World Championships and other major meets) at Nationals in San Antonio next month and at US Oly Trials in Omaha in 2016? It would greatly enhance the viewing experience for the fans.