Vindicated but no closure: Former UMBC swimmers react to Justice Department findings

More than three years after a group of University of Maryland, Baltimore County swimmers reported their coach’s sexual harassment and assaults, some former athletes say this week’s U.S. Department of Justice report vindicates them.

The Title IX report by federal investigators found the university knew of potential sex discrimination as early as 2015, but didn’t take action to investigate allegations of former head coach Chad Cradock’s sexual misconduct until November 2020. Cradock died by suicide in March 2021 after resigning.

“This is so much bigger than just the six of us who came forward. This goes back to 2015 that they could substantiate,” said Vanessa, a female swimmer. “It’s very validating. Hopefully, people will just start to realize that they should believe anyone that comes forward.”

However, a former male UMBC swimmer abused by Cradock said the end of the investigation doesn’t represent an end to their ordeal.

“I don’t think there’s closure until there’s actual change,” he said in an interview. “Right now it’s just a statement. If there’s something I can point to that says this is different, that’s great, but as of now, nothing feels different.”

The Baltimore Sun does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent. Vanessa agreed to be identified by her first name.

Both the Justice Department and external investigators hired by the university found that Cradock had favored the men’s swim team and neglected the women’s team. The report said Cradock sexually assaulted male swimmers and dissuaded female swimmers who experienced dating violence or assaults from making Title IX reports.

“The feeling that I had that brought me to make a complaint, feel vindicated in speaking out in the first place, was the idea that I was being set up for a potential career marked by abuse,” the male former swimmer said.

During his recruitment as a UMBC swimmer, he remembered feeling excited that Cradock appeared to like him.

“Knowing that was what hurt, because it harmed my identity as a swimmer,” he said. “Was I recruited to swim or be abused?”

He found out about the Justice Department’s report, which he described as “very thorough,” on social media earlier this week.  Although little of it surprised him, he said the idea that Cradock might have abused minors was not something he had seen “concretely” before.

On Monday, UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby apologized to students and said the university took responsibility for its failure to protect them. Vanessa, who is among a group of plaintiffs suing the university, said she felt sympathy for people like Sheares Ashby who were not at the university when the abuse occurred. Former UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III retired in 2022.

“I don’t want them to take the fall for some of the people who, kind of like Chad, were too cowardly to actually stand there and say, ‘Yeah, I messed up, I’m sorry,'” she said in an interview.

When Cradock died, some teammates told the swimmers who had reported him that they were responsible for his death. The male swimmer interviewed by The Sun said he feared someone on the team might physically harm him during that time.

“As a winning coach, the Head Coach was a popular and well-respected member of the University community. With this reputation, the Head Coach enjoyed deference despite behaviors that should have prompted the University to scrutinize the environment he created for student athletes,” Justice Department investigators wrote in the report.

The university’s failure to stop behaviors like inviting students for sleepovers, using the students’ locker room instead of an employee locker room, and moving a male student-athlete into his home allowed the coach to sexually assault and discriminate against student-athletes, the report said.

“Due to the fact that swimming was my entire identity, I felt trapped in a hostile and toxic environment that would not let me go,” the male swimmer said.

He said teammates normalized behavior that he found odd or inappropriate.

The Justice Department’s report also criticized how the university’s Title IX office interacted with the student-athletes.

The male swimmer described the office as “invalidating, inconsistent and standoffish,” and said he had spoken to staff from the university’s Office of the General Counsel without being informed of their role.

The former athletes hope that changes mandated by a planned settlement agreement between the university and the Justice Department will mean future students have a better experience at UMBC. The male swimmer said he would like to see less turnover in the Title IX office and a more prominent physical location.

“I hope that it influences Title IX policy in Maryland and beyond, and I hope that structural reforms that happen are monitored and audited,” he said.

Swimmers are still grappling with the aftereffects of the abuse, they said in interviews. The male swimmer mourned the years of his life he put into the sport and said the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered made him lose interest in other passions too.

“The toxic and hostile environment I experienced felt like it was enabled by Chad,” the male swimmer said. “My hope is that as the swim team moves on, there’ll be people who were never in contact with this.”