US Rowing investigates declare famed coach Ted Nash abused teenage pupil | Rowing

US Rowing has launched an inquiry into allegations that Ted Nash, an Olympic champion rower who went on to develop into a famed coach, had a relationship with one among his teenage college students.

Jennifer Fox’s 2018 movie, The Story, detailed a sexual relationship she had when she was 13 together with her coach, who was 40. The coach was given a pseudonym within the movie, however Fox stated in an interview with the New York Times on Monday that her abuser was Nash, who gained a gold medal for the US within the coxless 4 on the 1960 Olympics and went on to a profitable teaching profession during which he additionally labored with feminine runners.

Nash died in 2021 on the age of 88.

Fox was 13 when she stated she met Nash in 1973. She was a part of a working group that Nash coached, and says he lavished consideration on her, calling her “mature and extraordinary”. Fox alleges they’d a sexual relationship that ended when Nash organized for her to sleep with him and Robin Stryker, a university pupil who was 19 on the time. Stryker advised the Occasions that she believed she too had been groomed by Nash.

“There’s little doubt in my thoughts that he [abused Fox]” she stated. “I might see him doing that. Folks must be held accountable.”

Fox says she didn’t think about the connection to be abuse till she was in her 40s and spoke to different girls who had comparable experiences.

“It dawned on me I wasn’t particular in any respect and that, oh, I used to be simply his goal,” she stated. “I might deal with it at 45 as a result of I used to be a profitable film-maker who’d had a life, who had an ego, who was large enough to deal with it.”

Fox says she wrote in regards to the abuse in a faculty essay that her instructor assumed was fiction.

“If I had handed that essay in at this time, there could be flags throughout it,” Fox advised the Guardian in 2018 whereas selling The Story. “No one was speaking about sexual abuse and no person was searching for it, actually not within the prosperous Jewish suburbs.”

On Monday US Rowing, stated it was investigating Fox’s allegations.

“US Rowing, the nationwide governing physique of the game of rowing that operates beneath the auspices of the USA Olympic and Paralympic Committee, just lately realized of allegations that former US rower and staff coach Ted A Nash engaged in sexual contact with a minor within the early Seventies. The allegations had been outlined in a New York Occasions article revealed at this time,” it stated in an announcement.

“Though the precise allegations don’t relate to the late Mr Nash’s affiliation with US Rowing, we take all allegations of abuse very severely. Upon studying of those allegations, US Rowing retained the regulation agency Shearman & Sterling LLP to conduct a professional bono impartial investigation. This investigation is being led by Shearman & Sterling companion Adam B Schwartz. We’ll share a whole abstract of the findings and Shearman’s suggestions as soon as their report is full.

“US Rowing strongly encourages the reporting of all types of misconduct, together with sexual misconduct.”

Fox stated she had thought-about contacting the police since making her movie in 2018 however declined to take action because the statute of limitations had expired. Attorneys advised her a civil case wouldn’t be worthwhile because of the small dimension of Nash’s property.

Nash’s widow, Jan Nash, advised the Occasions that she was saddened to listen to of Fox’s allegations. However she added that it’s “not honest” for Fox to call her husband, who coached the US at 9 Olympics, as he was not alive to defend himself.

“Look, I didn’t know Ted on the time [of the alleged abuse], so I can’t say something about that point,” she stated.