A former world-ranked South African swimmer has told an Australian television network that he was abused by a coach who has been implicated in several other sexual assault cases involving swimmers.
Anthony Rocchi was a 1,500-meter swimmer and was training with the hope that he might make the South African team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics when he began working with Australian John Wright in 1998.
Rocchi has told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television that Wright sexually assaulted him over a period of six months that year.
“My whole life, I had to lie to people and tell them that I wasn’t good enough to go to the (Olympic) Games,” Rocchi said.
“It just wasn’t for me. And today, I can tell people that I was good enough, but that my dreams were destroyed by this horrible man.”
After the unexpected death of an Olympic swimmer who alleged he’d been sexually
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