USA Swimming Named In Lawsuit Accusing Coach Joe Bernal of Sexual Abuse

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

Former high-level swimmer Amanda Le is accusing coach Joe Bernal of sexually abusing her 15 years ago and alleges that USA Swimming and other organizations failed to stop it.

Le, who trained with Bernal from 2006 until 2010, filed a lawsuit against “the individuals and corporate entities who let a known child rapist work as a youth swim coach, who supported him with infrastructure, position, and prestige for decades, and who allowed him full access to a never-ending cycle of young girls to prey upon,” the suit states, according to CNN.

“Amanda Le was one of those girls.”

The 33-page lawsuit alleges Bernal sexually abused Le while she was a minor—he started coaching her when she was 13 and finished when she was 18.

Bernal died in October 2022. His coaching career took off when he transformed the Fordham University men’s team into a force while also starting up the school’s women’s swim team. He went on to serve as the head coach at Harvard, getting the nod to work on two U.S. Olympic staffs in 1984 and 1988 as the coach of medalists David Berkoff and Bobby Hackett.

Inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame in 2015, Bernal also founded Bernal’s Gator Swim Club based in New England (BGSC-NE), where he trained Le.

In February 2016, Bernal was given a lifetime ban by USA Swimming for sexual abuse of an unnamed “Athlete A,” which the lawsuit states was Le. Later that year, his place in the Hall of Fame of both the ASCA and Fordham was rescinded.

Bernal’s Gator Swim Club was renamed Gator Swim Club in 2016 after his retirement.

“USA Swimming is deeply committed to the safety and welfare of all its members,” the organization’s then-spokesman Scott Leightman said in 2016 in a statement to The Boston Globe. “The Safe Sport program’s mission is to increase awareness to reduce the risk for abuse in sport and our organization has no tolerance for violations of our code of conduct.’’

The lawsuit alleges that when Le was 15 and Bernal was in his mid-60s, he kissed her after practice, and the sexual contact escalated over the next few years.

“While she was in high school, Amanda started to have panic attacks, which she believed at the time were due solely to the stress of swimming; she knew that (she) was afraid of performing poorly because she would be punished,” the suit states. “Amanda was also suffering the consequences of the sexual abuse, although she did not realize it at the time.”

The lawsuit states that Le would sleep in Bernal’s room on several team trips, and she would get picked up from Bernal to skip school and go to his house for sex.

Le went to college from 2011 until 2014, and during her junior year, Bernal impregnated her and paid for the abortion, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit goes on to say that Le’s mother found her diary, and despite her parents showing it to another coach at BGSC, that coach did not contact law enforcement and “did nothing to protect Amanda.”

The suit also alleges that USA Swimming “was aware of complaints about Bernal’s inappropriate behavior with minor female swimmers” before Le began competitive swimming. It accuses Bernal, USA Swimming and other defendants of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Bernal was previously named in an August 2021 lawsuit in which Kimberly Stines accused him of a “five-year campaign of systemic emotional and sexual abuse” beginning in 1976, according to CNN.

Le’s attorney, Jon Little, told CNN that the litigation in Le’s case is ongoing and a trial is expected sometime in late 2025 or early 2026. He also represented Stines, and says the system failed her.

“The system failed her and now she feels guilty that there is an Amanda Le,” Little told CNN, adding that Le filed the lawsuit to let kids know they are not alone.

“She felt alone back then, but she doesn’t now.”

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