Hiea-Yoon Kang of La Mirada suspended as coach at city pool – Orange County Register

U.S. Olympic and Synchronized Swimming Team coach Hiea-Yoon Kang has been suspended from her coaching position at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center following dozens of allegations that she routinely abused and bullied young athletes for more than a decade, the Orange County Register has learned. (Photo courtesy of USAAS)

U.S. Olympic and national synchronized swimming coach Hiea-Yoon Kang has been suspended from her coaching duties at her Southern California training center following dozens of allegations that she routinely abused and bullied young athletes for more than a decade, the Orange County Register has learned.

Although Kang has been suspended as a coach at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center pending the outcome of an investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, La Mirada Aquabelles, the local club that Kang founded and made a liaison for the U.S. national team, will continue to train at the facility, La Mirada City Manager Jeff Boynton confirmed Wednesday.

The city’s suspension follows the publication last month of a nine-month-long Register investigation in which current and former U.S. national team and Aquabelles swimmers alleged in interviews and documents that Kang routinely physically, verbally and emotionally abused female athletes as young as nine years old. Many of those athletes were driven hours a day or relocated from other parts of the state or country to train under Kang.

Kang repeatedly bullied, laughed at or ignored swimmers who sobbed or screamed in pain, and in at least one case he personally dislocated an athlete’s toe during stretching exercises and training, 16 current and former Aquabelles swimmers, including former members of the U.S. national team, and their parents allege in interviews, formal complaints filed with the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, other confidential Safe Sport documents and recordings and transcripts of interviews with athletes, as well as USA Artistic Swimming documents obtained by the Register.

The US Center for SafeSport has received complaints against Kang from no fewer than 18 swimmers and parents over the past 13 years. They list more than 80 specific allegations, ranging from physical, verbal and emotional abuse, bullying, body shaming, forcing athletes to compete or train despite injuries or health problems requiring surgery, to child labor and endangerment, according to documents and interviews provided to the Register by SafeSport.

Kang was suspended as coach of the U.S. Olympic and national teams by USA Artistic Swimming, the national swimming governing body, on May 9.

“The City recently learned of an investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport into allegations against Coach Kang, some of which are alleged to have occurred at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center,” Boynton wrote in an email to the Register on Wednesday. “The City also learned that Coach Kang was recently suspended by USA Artistic Swimming pending the results of the investigation. Out of an abundance of caution, the City has decided to temporarily suspend Coach Kang from training at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center pending the results of SafeSport’s investigation. Until then, the City will have no further comment on this item.”

Kang did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Kang was named assistant coach of the Los Angeles-based U.S. national team in January and was tasked with playing a leading role in preparing the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics this summer. This was the latest in a series of promotions to the U.S. team for Kang, who has been part of the U.S. national team since 2011.

The appointment came 16 months after Adam Andrasko, executive director of USA Artistic Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, filed complaints of “psychological and emotional misconduct and abuse” by Kang. She alleged that she coerced injured athletes into training or competing, regularly body-shamed young athletes and committed child labor by punishing athletes as young as 11 by forcing them to teach and supervise children between the ages of 5 and 7 to swim for up to two hours a day while otherwise not supervised by adults or a certified lifeguard, according to USA Artistic Swimming documents. One parent alleged in a complaint that her 11-year-old daughter witnessed a young child nearly drown while being “taught” by another member of the Aquabelle team.

Swimmers suffered regular physical abuse from Kang, from being required to train up to 40 hours a week, to being forced to train or compete while recovering from surgeries, injuries that required further medical treatment, and concussions, to hypoxic training that put athletes at risk of losing consciousness underwater, athletes and parents allege in interviews, complaints to SafeSport, and recordings. Swimmers suffered dislocated toes, hyperextended knees, and other leg injuries during drills in which Kang manipulated their legs or feet in ways that caused some swimmers to scream in pain or burst into tears, athletes and parents allege in interviews, complaints, and recordings of interviews to SafeSport.

A member of the U.S. national team recalled Kang laughing as 11- and 12-year-old swimmers screamed in pain during a two-chair routine designed to improve their agility. In the routine, a swimmer does a split with the lower part of her front leg supported on the front chair, the lower part of her back leg on the chair behind her, with her torso and the upper part of both legs suspended between the two chairs while Kang sits on the back of the thigh of a girl’s unsupported back leg.

“The girls are crying, tears are running down their faces and Hiea is laughing and saying, ‘Pull yourself together.’ This turns an act of help into malice.”

According to interviews, complaints to SafeSport and recordings, Kang also regularly berates athletes, insults them, or calls them “stupid,” “dumb,” or “losers.”

“‘Loser’ is her favorite word,” said Miranda Marquez, a former Aquabelles swimmer.

According to interviews and complaints, Kang regularly body-shames swimmers, making critical and derogatory comments about their weight, appearance, physique and diet. In April 2020, Kang required swimmers as young as 13 to regularly send her photos of them in sports bras or bikini tops and leggings so she could track changes in their physiques over a month.

Kang denied swimmers water breaks and limited their lunch breaks to five minutes, even on days when athletes trained for eight hours, swimmers and parents allege. Kang at times banned swimmers from leaving the pool to eat or even touching the pool walls while in the water, forcing swimmers to eat snacks like cheese sticks while scrambling eggs to stay afloat in mid-water, athletes and parents said in interviews.

Swimmers and parents also allege that Kang was paid to teach young children, some of them preschool-age, but instead of teaching the children herself, she assigned some of her synchronized swimmers to supervise the children, some of whom were not much older than the child they were watching, according to complaints, interviews and two videos obtained by SafeSport. Sometimes, Kang ordered Aquabelles swimmers to supervise the young children as punishment for mistakes during practice or injuries, according to complaints and interviews obtained by SafeSport. An incident involving a 5-year-old boy in 2022 at the La Mirada facility was particularly alarming, swimmers and parents claim.

The mother of two Aquabelles students wrote to SafeSport that she had withdrawn her children from the club in 2022 because of “safety concerns that I have personally witnessed.”

The boy and the other young children were left by Kang to supervise elementary and middle school-aged synchronized swimmers while she coached the Aquabelles teams, the boy’s mother alleged in a complaint to SafeSport.

“One day, (her son) held one of the students in the pool for a long time because he couldn’t swim by himself. He was scared and crying. (Her son) was floating on his back and Coach Kang told the student to help (her son) float on his stomach. (Her son) started crying and wanted to get out of the pool. However, Coach Kang let (her son) stay in the water and had the student help (her son) stay afloat and turn him onto his stomach. (Her son) kept crying and wanted to get out of the water. All the students, including Coach Kang, laughed at (her son) as he cried and wanted to get out of the water. This incident was recorded on video.

“It seems like Coach Kang and the older students had a lot of fun watching (her son) flounder in the water.”