Maddie Groves makes allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct

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“I specifically remember a training camp in New Zealand, I would have been 13 and we weren’t allowed to go into the dining hall and eat without our coach being there to see that we are eating the right meals. ”Ms. Groves told the ABC.

“There was a fairly consistent attitude that women were just emotional and demanding beings, unable to cope with the pressures of high performance sport.”

Ms Groves said Mr Palfrey occasionally left bruises on his body when demonstrating swimming movements during training.

Swimming Australia told the ABC it had referred the allegations against Mr Palfrey to Sport Integrity Australia.

Ms Groves also spoke about the conduct of former Australia’s national youth coach Glenn Beringen as he coached him at the Oceania Swimming Championships in Samoa.

“When I was 15, I was sent to a foreign country mostly on my own with no real support network, this strange man being the one who was going to take care of me,” Ms. Groves told ABC.

“There was apparently no point in talking to me when I was dressed … but as soon as I was in my stockings, that was the moment this person wanted to walk away from the group and have these intimate conversations with. me and stay very close to me, inside my personal space and really stand above me and look at me and ogle me.

Ms Groves accused Mr Beringen of “openly staring at my breasts”.

“And there would have been contact with my arm, contact with my lower back, and sometimes he would adjust my tightening strap as well.”

Ms Groves said she filed a complaint against Mr Beringen in 2017 as part of an independent review by the Australian Swimmers Association of the FINA World Championships campaign in Hungary.

Mr Beringen told the ABC that the allegations were false and that he had “fully cooperated in an independent investigation into the allegations, and that they were found to be unfounded”.

Swimming Australia told the ABC Ms Groves had been asked to provide further details to an independent investigator, but declined to do so.

The ABC reported that Swimming Australia had told Ms Groves her claim was “unfounded”.

Swimming Australia did not renew Mr Beringen’s contract earlier this year.

The organization did not say whether the findings of its investigation will be made public in its report next year.

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