SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ariana Kukors, a swimming star from Washington state on the U.S. west coast who holds the 2010 100-meter individual medley world record, accused her former coach Sean Hutchison of sexually assaulting her when she was 16, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Seattle Times daily said that Kukors accused Hutchinson of grooming her for a sexual relationship when she was 13 and swimming for Hutchison on King Aquatics, which has seven locations in the Seattle area in Washington.
Kukors told U.S. law enforcement officials that Hutchinson, former USA Swimming national coach, had sexually assaulted her at the age of 16 and continued to have sexual contact with her until she was 24.
She used to be a swimmer with Auburn Riverside High School and University of Washington.
Kukors twice broke the record of the 100-meter individual medley at the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
She was also the world champion in 2009 in the 200-meter individual medley and was fifth in that event in the 2012 Olympics.
According to the Orange County Register, a daily newspaper published in California, the Washington police department conducted a search warrant on Hutchison's apartment just south of Seattle, and seized his computers and cell phones.
"I never thought I would share my story because, in so many ways, just surviving was enough," Kukors, 28, told the Register.
"I was able to leave a horrible monster and build a life I could have never imagined for myself. But in time, I've realized that stories like my own are too important to go unwritten," she added.
