Matthew Elliott, the former Virginia club coach handed a two-year ban by USA Swimming earlier this year, has been moved up to the federation’s lifetime ban list as of April 2018.
Elliott coached with Poseidon Swimming in Virginia for almost a year, from August 2016 to late July 2017. Poseidon says that in August, it learned of “information regarding Matt Elliott while he was a part-time coach with Poseidon” and reported that to USA Swimming’s SafeSport division and other authorities. Elliott was arrested in mid-August, the club says.
In March, his name first appeared on USA Swimming’s list of individuals temporarily banned. The ban decision was made in December and his ban began on January 29, 2018 and was set to last until January 29, 2020. You can read more about that ban here.
But as of April 23, Elliott’s name was added to USA Swimming’s list of individuals permanently banned. He still appears on the temporary banned list as well. USA Swimming says that the Center for SafeSport changed Elliott’s sanction, resulting in the change to the banned list.
Elliott’s ban is still listed with the Code of Conduct section 304.3.17, which is the catch-all “violation of the SafeSport Code.” Decisions regarding SafeSport bans are now made by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, not by USA Swimming, and bans transfer across all Olympic sports, meaning Elliott would no longer be able to coach any USOC sport.
Editor’s note: there is another USA Swimming coach in Indiana and well-known former University of Florida swimmer that has the same name as the subject of this article. The two are not the same person.