The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)

Swimmer: Coach ‘stole so much’

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NEW YORK — Olympic swimmer Ariana Kukors said in an emotional interview Monday that her former coach “stole so much” from her in the decade she alleges he sexually abused her starting when she was a minor.

Kukors, 28, told The Associated Press that she can’t get the time back but she can speak out so others recognize the signs of people grooming others for abuse or similar misconduct.

“If I save one person who’s currently being groomed. If I have a dialogue with one parent about something that they think is alarming with their child and their coach. If I could do that, this is worth it — as painful as it is,” Kukors said through tears in New York.

Kukors alleges Sean Hutchison, who began coaching her at a swim club near Seattle, groomed her for sexual abuse when she was 13 and started it when she was 16. The Seattle-area native also told authoritie­s that he took thousands of sexually explicit photos of her as a minor.

Hutchison, 46, a former Olympic assistant coach, has denied the allegation­s and has not been charged with a crime. Federal and local investigat­ors searched his Seattle apartment last week for computers and other devices.

An email to Hutchison’s Seattle attorney seeking comment Monday wasn’t immediatel­y returned.

“At no time did I ever abuse Ariana Kukors or do anything with her that was not consensual,” he said in a statement last week. “I absolutely deny having any sexual or romantic relationsh­ip with her before she was old enough to legally make those decisions for herself. Prior to that time, I did nothing to ‘groom’ her.”

Hutchison said the two were in a relationsh­ip after the 2012 Olympics, when she was 23 and he was 41.

Kukors, the 2009 world champion in the 200-meter individual medley who placed fifth in that event at the 2012 Games, said Monday that someone who began forming a relationsh­ip with her when she was 13 could not possibly say it was consensual.

In a roughly 20-minute interview, Kukors described her long process of healing, the overwhelmi­ng support she has received since she went public last week and her desire to help educate others about potential abuse.

She declined to say what USA Swimming officials or others should have done differentl­y and what policy changes she hoped to see, saying she doesn’t have the emotional capacity for that yet.

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