Nate Smith listed on “U.S. Center for SafeSport” database for Allegations of Misconduct

[thager]

Since this is waterskiing with Olympic ties I have no reason to waste my time or money on this!

[jcamp]

@thager that's probably the worst comment I've seen on this forum. So, speaking in generalizations and not to this particular incident, if someone was sexually abusing little kids you wouldn't care to stop them just because the organization that was doing the investigating is related to the Olympic movement?

[klindy]

@thager it’s actually a condition of USA-WSWS insurance - several policies.

[ForrestGump]

@jcamp you're putting words in @thager's mouth now.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

I really do hate this kind of stuff. The very small percentage of "fill in the blank assholes" make the simple things a PIA for the normal 99% of us that try really hard to do the right thing.

 

So while the safe sport program is well intentioned, having anyone sit through hours of classes or certifications just to deem us "safe" is insulting. I sat through a bunch of this with the Boy Scouts - while a good program, it missed the forest for the trees. Sitting in a class is not going to stop a sexual predator or anyone with sinister intentions, but only subjects us "normals" to excess scrunity.

 

If I want to help coach some kids and spread knowledge and grow the sport I'm more than willing to do that. In fact I really enjoy it. If I have to take a bunch of classes to be "certified", I will sit out and take a pass. Who wins in that situation?

 

IMHO, a much better approach is if someone is found guilty of a major offense (like the gymnastics coaches), string them up by their ankles and cut off key body parts with a dull knife. We need to make life difficult for the criminals, not everyone else. So many things are dictated by the f-ing lawyers and insurance concerns vs what really makes sense.

 

***End Rant*****

 

I truly hope the accusations against Nate turn out to be smoke vs fire. If the latter, see comments about dull knives.

[Ilivetoski]

Why does SafeSport do the investigation & not law enforcement?

[Horton]

@Live2ski it's just a different purpose. They're not law enforcement professionals so they actually have greater latitude. In many cases at the conclusion of a SafeSport investigation all of the evidence is headed over to law enforcement.

[Wish]

Gotta say that greater latitude then law enforcement is an unnerving element as well as is the time laps that may occur before law enforcement gets involved?. I know I'm probably making assumptions here but greater latitude then law inforcment and evidence is headed to law informant (should already be there) may not be what's actually happening and may give the wrong impression if not the case. Also I feel law inforcment does keep things out of the publics eye for the most part. In some respect, Nate is already being judged in the eyes of the public without a whisper of what he's actually being accused of. That seems backwards.

[Jordan]

Well, it is inconvenient to be sure. Having said that, we have to remember that victims are often too afraid and confused to go to the police. Having a less intimidating avenue for people to express their concerns should allow for earlier detection of problems. Nothing is perfect, particularly in these sorts of difficult situations.

[Than_Bogan]

@Bruce_Butterfield All during the training I kept thinking the same thing: Wow, this tiny tiny population of truly horrible people is making life so much more complicated and unpleasant for everyone. Really pissed me off.

 

However, you may be partly missing the point of the training, which is largely about what all of us non-horrible people can do to help protect everyone from this tiny-but-dangerous segment of our population. And some of that is not all that obvious, such as how to help someone who comes to you with allegations against someone you know, and to never try to conduct your own investigations. (There are very good reasons for this, but I won't go into them in detail here.)

[Than_Bogan]

This might be leaning toward off-topic, but Bruce's comments also made me remember an exchange recently with a (female) co-worker:

 

Me: Ya know, I'm disappointed in my fellow felons that they haven't killed that gymnastics doctor yet.

Her: Maybe he's their bitch.

Me: Huh, that actually does make me feel a little better.

[ForrestGump]

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Now THAT made me laugh. That cat sat gymnastics back to the dark ages and they let him do it for a decade. Gymnastics is the reason SafeSport exists as an entity.

[Than_Bogan]

@Wish @Ilivetoski You may be glad to hear that you are misinformed. There is no "time lapse" with law enforcement, and SafeSport does not handle investigations in their stead. In fact, the training really drives home that quite a wide variety of information should be immediately brought to the direct attention of law enforcement. They are the ones who deal with the delicate but potentially dangerous active situations. And they are trained in how to protect privacy and conduct an investigation at the same time.

 

An organization like SafeSport is there primarily to educate, because the single best resource to catch and stop the rare deviant coach is all of the good coaches. Then they also help regulate things on the sports end, typically when an offense may not rise to genuinely criminal, but still might warrant reduced or banned participation in some or all aspects of the sport.

[Wish]

@Than_Bogan I believe that's what my daughter was referring to when she said she found some moments of interest and usefulness. And I can see a child confiding in a coach they feel a sense of trust with. I'm glad she has a way to deal with something like that if it ever arises.

 

My previous comment was centered around the consern that comments like "SafeSport investigation all of the evidence is headed over to law enforcement" or that they "have greater latitude then law inforcment" could be seen as factual as I figured that most likely neither was the case.

[JAS]

Considering the absence of any information available on this allegation I question the value of this thread. Over 8000 views and I’m sure almost that many impressions of meaning. Not fair for any parties involved Reporting facts when established will actually be news.

[slow]

I was against the thread when it was first started. Now I think the tranperancy is good.

[Horton]

There is no good answer. I would have much preferred that they not announce anything until there was action or Smith is cleared. In this state it is news but is a news item without any information. Is really awkward.

 

If Smith is cleared then WTF is SafeSport doing? If Smith is not cleared then why make public this interim action?

 

Sometime my job is easy and sometimes it is super uncomfortable.

 

[skispray]

@Horton does the SafeSport restriction mean that he's ineligible to complete right now? If so, what jurisdiction does that apply to? Will he be able to compete at Moomba? Will he be competing at the Masters if the interim period goes through May?

[Horton]

@skispray I am going way out of my way to only report what I have gotten from official and attributable sources.

 

As I have said in previous posts SafeSport is a black hole of information. The best answer I have is to tell you to read the below links. Everything I know I learned there.

 

https://swimswam.com/digging-in-on-safesports-investigative-process-ban-terminology/

 

https://77media.blob.core.windows.net/uscss/1507075311160.glossary-of-terms.pdf

[ForrestGump]

@skispray Potentially, that could be the case. It could also mean that the person is restricted from coaching. Or restricted from being around some other person. The definition of "suspension" gets down to the "local sanctioning body that's recognized by USOC" level. In the interim, USOC has granted SafeSport the latitude to temporarily restrict from local coaching all the way to restrict from active participation in competition. It all depends on the individual situation.

 

@horton Being engaged as a coach in another USOC sport I get why SafeSport does what they do. If someone hired a guest coach/athlete to come in, looked at the SafeSport site, didn't see anything, and then found out later that coach was diddling little kids(this is only an example and nothing about Nate) and SafeSport and the sanctioning body knew about the rumors, then everyone is open to litigation. So by showing interim actions, they at least give the public pause before engaging with someone.

[Jetsetr]

This would really SUCK if a false accusation was thrown out by a competitor to tarnish Mr Smith and limit his ability to compete...wouldn’t even have to be a “direct” connection to a fellow competitor...total conspiracy theory but in this day and age who knows...makes me VERY uncomfortable....

There are a LOT of things in this place we call home that makes me uncomfortable that I would have NEVER DREAMED OF...

[ForrestGump]

When you get to the point of an interim action, things have been weeded out from false accusations, typically.

[aupatking]

I actually feel for @Horton here. This has been floating around in an accusation stage for a few months. I actually applaud him for keeping it out of the site up to now. It is now public record, and if it’s going to be talked about, this seems to be the best way it can be handled.

I hope whoever is innocent here is protected.

[gjohnson]

False allegations are rare. We live in a society that shames, blames, and attacks victims. Which is one of the reasons safe sport is needed. Larry Nassar abused hundreds of young girls for two decades because people don't believe the victims. And if it weren't for courageous Rachel Denhollendar, a victim herself, Larry would still be abusing young girls. I would rather not taken safe sport training, but I understand why it's necessary.

[Ed_Johnson]

My understanding was that this was investigated by Law Enforcement and Dismissed MONTHS ago. Sorry to hear it is continuing on.

 

 

[swc5150]

It's a different era in which we live. Evil people, like the gymnast doctor, need to be brought to justice, and kids need to be taught to not fear shedding light on such situations. But now we live in a hyper-sensitive environment, and certain things were normal not so long ago, are not tolerated. Conversely, things that once seemed abnormal are now commonplace. Martina had to publicly apologize for stating it's unfair for a guy competing against women for crying out loud! I guess what I'm saying is I really hope this investigation (or any of its kind) is something of legit concern, and not about a young guy saying or doing typical dumb, young-dude stuff.

[skispray]

@swc5150 this is not about typical dumb young dude stuff.

[Jordan]

Hmm... do we know when this restriction was put in place? Or even what is restricted?

Nate was coaching recently at Tgas' ski school. A picture is on the ski school's Instagram dated February 20th

[Drago]

3/1/19

Its important to actually read

[swc5150]

I agree with @mjnelson. There are thumbs up, down, likes, dislikes to comments all over the place, with no clarity at all (but it appears a handful know what's up?). I'd assume ML, D3 and Nautique would have some inside knowledge, especially if law enforcement was involved, yet he's still endorsing them? Sorry if this all seems a little confusing to those of us out the loop.

[BraceMaker]

Safesport doesn't deal exclusively with criminal conduct but also deals with things such as verbal abuse, bullying etc. which would not have charge but create unsafe atmospheres. Another reason where you may see a site like this working is where a motivated third party such as another athlete or parent even a parent not directly involved making noise.

An example of this would be where a person doesnt feel like pressing charges/drops it and so someone else decides to pursue the case.

 

What is missing in our world is that vindication should always be noisier than accusations and rarely are.

[DefectiveDave]

Just my opinion, but I think by definition there can be no clarity in this situation at this point in time. If there was it would have been resolved at some level and/or the investigation would have been concluded.

 

Details at this point are likely rumors and hearsay, even for the majority of those "in the know".

[Weappa]

Interesting . . . Nate Smith no longer shows up on SafeSports's Centralized Discipline Database

[BraceMaker]

Yes he does.

[Weappa]

Must be my computer.

 

[swc5150]

@DefectiveDave actually there can be, such as "X has been accused of Y". That would clarify the situation for most of us, but if it's supposed to be confidential, I understand keeping it that way for the parties involved.

[swc5150]

@Weappa He doesn't show up on my computer today either.

[Horton]

@swc5150 refresh your browser. Instead of searching by name, in the sport category just type in water skiing. The names are listed alphabetically by first name. If there was any humor in the subject matter I would give you guys Pandas for this but not on this thread

[ballsohard]

Crazy to read about this. As hard as it is we all need to wait until the facts come out before we make any judgement calls on Nate either way.

[vernonreeve]

@swc5150 and @Weappa. The search interface wasn't programmed very user friendly. You have type type the name (or sport category), and then select from the list of suggested search results. So you can't just type Nate Smith and press Enter. You have to type Nate Smith, then click on the "Nate Smith" just under where you are typing to select that search phrase. So @Horton, I would give the panda to the web site programmers:).

[sethbakescake]

 

I think this is the most interesting information from the SwimSwam article. If a case has reached the "Interim Measure - Restriction" stage, then Safe Sport believes that there is at least a certain degree of credibility and seriousness to the report.

 

[Stevie Boy]

It,s a waiting game, let safe sport do there job, none of us have any of the relevant information, I am not sure things will ever be the same for Nate, he is tarnished which ever way it goes, lets hope the process is swift and not drawn out for all involved.

[rockdog]

He’s talking about coming to Aus so I guess he’s clear to come.

[Mancy]

Look here for clues https://www.instagram.com/waterskirag/

[BraceMaker]

Odd that Steve Garcia is putting stuff in writing.

 

What was happening in the world 6 years ago.

[ballsohard]

D3 says that Nate is going to Moomba. That waterskirag Instagram comment section makes skifly look tame!

[keithh2oskier]

Off topic but I just discovered this waterskirag IG account. Pretty amusing to say the least.

[ScottScott]

The Garcia's are pretty close to Nate, in fact he's been training Ali (high school age.) So they don't seem to be too concerned about his character. How old is he now, or was he 6 years ago?

[ballsohard]

Nate is currently 28 @ScottScott

[Pgraf]

Anyone with specific, pertinent observations or experience is encouraged to contact me directly. Paul Graf - "paul.graf@safesport.org" - Tel: 720-965-2377.