The University of Kentucky men’s and women’s swimming and diving program was dealt two years of probation by the NCAA on Friday for failing to give mandatory days off and exceeding maximum practice hours for nearly three years under former head coach Lars Jorgensen.
Jorgensen, 53, resigned last summer and is now facing a lawsuit for allegedly sexual abusing multiple ex-swimmers who became assistant coaches. The NCAA said he “did not participate in the agreement,” and that his portion of the case will be handled separately by the Committee on Infractions.
Kentucky president Eli Capilouto addressed the allegations against Jorgensen for the first time on Friday, calling them “deeply distressing.” Jorgensen is accused of preying on, sexually harassing, and committing violent sexual assaults against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who relied on him.
“The most serious of the allegations were only known to us at the time a lawsuit was filed by two former staff members and after the coach had been dismissed,” Capilouto said. “(Athletic director) Mitch (Barnhart) and I are sickened by allegations that members of the UK community suffered harm because of the actions of someone entrusted to protect and empower our student athletes and staff. We will not tolerate abuse, and neither should anyone who is a member of our community.”
Current athletic director Mitch Barnhart and former Kentucky swim coach Gary Conelly were also named as defendants in April’s lawsuit along with Jorgensen and the university for their “deliberate indifference.”
Before Jorgensen arrived at Kentucky in 2013, he coached at the University of Toledo from 2004-10. In 2014, a former Toledo softball coach accused Jorgensen of having a long-term romance with a swimmer, hiring her as an assistant coach, and ultimately promoting her to head coach in a Title IX lawsuit where he was one of three examples of male head coaches and administrators who “committed much more egregious offenses” without being fired.
“For over a couple decades, we have worked really hard to make sure that our compliance and our integrity was at the highest level. In this case, our processes worked,” Barnhart said in a statement on Friday. “Our compliance office uncovered both of these violations and worked through, over the last three years, trying to find a way through to solution, to resolution, which we have now received. We are thankful that the process has come to a close and we’re ready to move forward. This has been a long process, but I’m thankful for the people in our department that have worked hard to bring it to a conclusion.”
Jorgensen has denied the allegations, with his lawyer even blaming the rape allegations on “NCAA woke philosophy” and his support of anti-trans advocate Riley Gaines.
Former Princeton head coach Bret Lundgaard was hired as Jorgensen’s replacement in July. Now if his squad violates other NCAA legislation over the next two years, the Wildcats’ probation could be extended and additional sanctions applied.
Kentucky’s football team was also revealed to have committed Level II violations at the same time as the swim program, though the cases are separate. Eleven Wildcat football players were paid for work not performed at the UK hospital between spring 2021 and March 2022, forcing the team to vacate 10 wins from the 2021 season — including its Citrus Bowl victory over Iowa. Kentucky’s football team also received two years of probation as its punishment.
Riley Gaines is not anti trans. I am a swimmer, I am also gay. It’s not hateful to speak the truth. If you transition after puberty, you retain your height, you retain your wingspan, your lungs retain their sizes. These are permanent advantages. Again, it’s not hateful to say the truth! I myself am gay. Lia Thomas took the place of someone who had no such advantages. Guys, it is simple.
You ever listen to anything else she says?
She’s definitely anti-trans lol. Remove everything she’s ever said about Lia Thomas, and she’s still anti-trans.
Well, you are right. But would she have become anti trans were it not for that spectacle? Witnessing the re- education of people in sports? Witnessing censorship of people speaking their minds? Seeing the girl who got ninth pushed out?
You can’t even see Lia Thomas’s swimcloud for crying out loud. If transition after puberty magically disappeared all advantages, Thomas’s swimcloud would not have shot up like it did … obviously right? Well no, we aren’t even allowed to see it! (Only one year is shown.) That would be hateful. I say this as an LGBT swimmer. The whole situation is sickening.
Riley Gaines is not anti trans if you actually follow and listen to her talk.
I know y’all’s crew wants to believe this so bad, and that she has said that she’s not, if you go look at her social media and remove every post about Lia Thomas and sports (which again, her insistence on calling Lia and other trans women “he” is evidence enough), it’s still 100% clear that she’s anti trans, lgbtq, and everything else.
She has full on embraced Trumpism the last 2.5 years for sure.
I am gay. Sadly, many LGBT people have embraced Trump, because the alternative – you need to know this – has repeatedly used us as a political pawn to enrich their image, all the while damaging what acceptance we had by forcing LGBT things in front of everyone. Trump is not the answer, but neither is a party that censors people for speaking their beliefs.
because voting against your own best interests is the answer?
Brah what? Neither party is “my own best interest.” Democrats have let anyone under the sun claim to be LGBT and then abuse the power that comes with it. No one is allowed to speak out, for fear of reprisal. Republicans being bad doesn’t rule Democrats being bad either.
“Men in wigs front & center at the Olympic Games. No one ever tell me this group is “oppressed” or “marginalized” again.”
“Look, I’ll be the first to say I adhered to this for a long time, too. I thought I had to make the distinction that I am, in fact, a biological woman,” Gaines said Friday on “Varney & Co.” “But it hit me a few weeks ago, really, what we were doing when we added that prefix of ‘biological’ because we’re admitting there’s an un-biological alternative, and there is not.”
“There is man, there is woman, there’s male, there’s female, mother, father, boy, girl,” she continued. “This idea of ‘biological woman’ is crazy.”
What is DSD? Rare condition explained amid Imane Khelif Olympic boxing row over XY chromosome (msn.com)
My man, she’s a right wing engagement grifter. What are you talking about?
Riley has yet to stand up for the athletes who have spoken out about the abuse they endured from Lars. Instead of offering support, she made those who struggled under Lars’ abuse feel inadequate. As a captain, she failed to support her teammates and fostered a culture that undermined team unity.
Perhaps we should be more concerned about protecting women from abuse
A slap on the wrist, he treads off to another University to commit the same hideous acts. Meanwhile, the swimmers are sanctioned.
Totally agree. Instead, why wouldn’t the punishment be directed at the leadership team that allowed this to happen? For instance, the Athletic Director is banned from working in that role for 2 years, the UK Compliance Director must complete additional compliance training… etc. Why is it the victims are the ones to receive punishment?
After witnessing Chip Kline firsthand at ISC, I can tell you that Lars and company at Kentucky must have been even worse. NCAA should throw everything at Kentucky, Lars, and Chip Kline. These people must never be allowed to coach again.
Between losing Calipari, the Lars stuff, and the football team recently getting put on probation/having wins vacated, it is not a good time to be a Wildcat fan
Punish the current AD, not the swimmers. They did nothing wrong.
How do you actually achieve that? I ask this as someone whose team got probation over textbooks and the school bookstore lol.
That’s a great question. I really don’t know. But potentially punishing the current roster doesn’t seem fair. Maybe interview for a new AD? Did Cal keep their AD after the Teri mess? I’m
Sure they had some clue…. But since it’s swimming it got pushed under the rug unfortunately. I certainly would not encourage my kid to go there considering the current admin is still in place. We didn’t talk to Cal for that exact reason.
What a dirty program.