Olympic gold swimmer left ‘broken’ by coach's harsh regime and weight comments

A world record-breaking swimmer has told BBC Panorama she was left "broken" by the harsh regime run by one of the UK's most successful swimming coaches.

Rūta Meilutytė, who won gold at the London 2012 Olympics, said Jon Rudd's focus on weighing and swimmers' diets contributed to her struggle with an eating disorder and depression.

In total, 12 ex-swimmers have told us they experienced bullying, a toxic training environment and controlling food culture at one of the UK's most prestigious clubs for young elite swimmers when he was head coach.

Rudd had faced allegations of bullying and verbal abuse during his 28-year tenure at Plymouth Leander swimming club, but the BBC has learned that no action was taken by the sport's governing body.

We have found that Swim England, the governing body, did not act on a confidential 2012 investigation which ruled Rudd should be suspended after hearing evidence about his behaviour from 17 witnesses.

Swim England's new chief executive Andy Salmon said he did not know why Rudd had not been suspended, but he was "deeply, deeply, sorry" to Plymouth's swimmers and all of those harmed by the governing body's failings.

Rudd, who is due to become high performance director of Saudi Arabia's Olympic swimming team, has not responded to the BBC.

Plymouth Leander attracted aspiring swimmers from around the world after Rudd established its reputation as a club that produced Olympic athletes.

While head coach between 1989 and 2017, he was responsible for swimmers' success, but also had safeguarding responsibilities to ensure their wellbeing.

One of Plymouth Leander's most successful swimmers was Antony James, who won silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and represented Team GB at the 2012 Olympics. He was jailed for 21 years in February for raping two girls he had met at the club.

Three people who trained at Plymouth Leander told Panorama that Rudd, who had coached James since he was eight years old, should have known he was interested in younger girls.

A former girlfriend of James, also an ex-swimmer, said he was well known for mixing with young teenage girls and that his status as the club's "golden boy" meant no one questioned his behaviour.

"Everyone knew - he wasn't trying to hide anything that he was doing, it was very out there and open," she said.

She was 16 and he was 22 when they started a relationship and she says she believes she was a "gateway" to his grooming of younger girls.

Rudd was a coach at Plymouth Leander in 2010 when Lithuanian Rūta Meilutyte moved to the UK to be coached by him.

She made Olympic history two years later when, aged 15, she became the youngest person to win the 100m breaststroke.

Now 28, she recalls Rudd making cutting comments about her weight.

When she confided in him that she had been making herself sick after meals to lose weight, she said he laughed and replied: "Well, at least you get the calories out."

She said that Rudd did seek help for her once he realised that she was not happy with what he had said.

She also described him saying her "ass was fat", moments before a major competition, aged 16.

Despite being hailed as the club's most successful swimmer, Meilutytė said Rudd's regime "made me for a while and then it broke me".

She left Plymouth Leander in 2017. Rudd's career, meanwhile, went from strength to strength, with him becoming Swim Ireland's director of performance swimming in the same year.

Rudd was employed by Plymouth College, an independent school, until 2017. It ran a partnership with Plymouth Leander between 2001-2024 and many swimmers boarded there.

Among the other 11 swimmers to make allegations to Panorama about Rudd was Olympic bronze medallist Cassie Patten. She said the coach had made her train with an injured shoulder and that it eventually ended her career in 2011.

Commonwealth Youth gold medallist Phoebe Lenderyou told Panorama Rudd's regime aggravated her eating disorder.

Andy Salmon, who has been CEO of Swim England since February 2024, confirmed to the BBC that no action was taken against Rudd despite evidence swimmers had suffered harm and the 2012 report's recommendation that he be suspended for four months.

The report would have remained a secret but for the BBC receiving a tip-off in 2023. It said Rudd had been subjected to a lengthy probe, but that none of the complainants had been told the outcome.

His case was reviewed after the BBC asked Swim England about it.

According to the original investigation, Rudd's assistant coach, Lindsay Trimmings, should also have been suspended from Plymouth Leander. She was later hired by Swim England to be its head of coaching but left in 2023. When Panorama wrote to her, she said she did not want to respond.

"Clearly the organisation failed to act on the independent recommendations made at the time. And I'm really sorry, on behalf of Swim England, for any suffering that that might have led to," Mr Salmon told us.

The failings of the 2012 investigation into Rudd have led to the governing body announcing it would review 1,500 safeguarding cases carried out across England between 2002 and 2022.

Swim England commissioned a listening report into all aquatic sports after the BBC first shared multiple swimmers' accounts of mistreatment in 2023. Published in 2024, the governing body's report found a culture of fear at all levels of the sport that threatened its future.

Plymouth Leander said it was "deeply concerned by the nature and severity" of Panorama's allegations, stating that the club was "fundamentally different" from when Rudd was in charge. It also said it had conducted a "thorough review" of its safeguarding policies and procedures to provide "the safest possible environment".

It said Rudd's employer, Plymouth College, was responsible for his "oversight and jurisdiction".

Plymouth College, which is now under different ownership, said the club was responsible for safeguarding and that it was "deeply concerned to hear these testimonies from swimmers who trained at Plymouth Leander".

It said the partnership with Plymouth Leander had been terminated and it now ran its own swimming organisation, Plymouth College Aquatics (PCA).

BBC Panorama has also found evidence of a bullying culture at Royal Wolverhampton School Swimming Club, another leading institution in the sport, as recently as last year.

Complaints about the behaviour of David Painter, the club's head coach at the time were made by the parents of 11 swimmers, during 2023 and 2024.

One of the swimmers, Abby, now 17, told the BBC she was forced to choose between her education and swimming because Painter would not let her have time off to prepare for her GCSEs.

She attended a different school several miles away but said she was told she would still have to train on the morning of exams.

"Towards the end I was literally having full blown panic attacks," said Abby, who told Panorama she was failing at school. She eventually decided to leave the sport.

Alison Hickman, the club's former welfare officer, told the BBC she had given the names of 11 parents who had concerns about Painter to Swim England and said none of them were contacted by the governing body.

Swim England told the BBC it had asked the school to resolve the issues.

The Royal Wolverhampton School said complaints were confidential. It said the school has "clear safeguarding procedures" and "all formal complaints are investigated swiftly and appropriately".

Painter, who left to coach in Canada last year, said his "commitment to athlete development and wellbeing has always been at the core" of his coaching, and that he had never been subject to "any disciplinary investigations or hearings". He added that the allegations against him were "untrue… and defamatory".

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