By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Robert Griswold, the disgraced Paralympic champion accused of abusing and sexually assaulting one of his teammates, has been permanently banned by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
Griswold had his SafeSport status updated from “temporary suspension” to “permanent ineligibility” for sexual and physical misconduct on Monday, March 9.
The 29-year-old American was accused of grooming and abusing U.S. Paralympic teammate Parker Egbert, beginning in July 2021 at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo and through August 2022.
A long-running civil lawsuit was dismissed in November 2025 after a federal judge ruled the court lacked jurisdiction, but Egbert’s representatives refiled in December.
“Accountability is the path to long-term culture change,” said new SafeSport CEO Benita Fitzgerald Mosely, according to ESPN. “We are grateful to those who come forward with their stories because they make it possible for the Center to take action and protect others.”
Fitzgerald Mosely, the 1984 Olympic champion in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, was named the new SafeSport CEO in January and assumed duties on Feb. 1.
“It’s made great strides in shifting sport culture toward athlete safety,” Fitzgerald Mosley said of the Center, which was founded in 2017 to address widespread systemic abuse in Olympic sports, when she was hired. “However, there is a continuing need to grow this impact, enhance efficiencies, and evolve the organization to fulfill its potential for athletes, survivors, and the entire sport community.”
Egbert’s family filed a lawsuit accusing Griswold of grooming and abusing Egbert, who has an intellectual disability, in November 2022, while the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and the U.S. Center for SafeSport were also accused of “extensive efforts to shield and protect Griswold, much to the detriment of Plaintiff and other team members.”
SafeSport was removed as a defendant in the case in March 2023, but the suit between Egbert and Griswold and the USOPC went on for three years until November 2025, when the case was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction.
In December 2025, Egbert’s representatives refiled the lawsuit, claiming he was sexually abused by Griswold when they were teammates between 2021 and 2022, and that the USOPC ignored warnings about Griswold and failed to protect the plaintiff.
Griswold is a two-time Paralympic champion, claiming gold in the men’s 100 backstroke S8 and the 100 butterfly S8 at the Tokyo Games in 2021. He also won bronze in the 100 back S8 at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. He’s also a 15-time Para World Championship medalist, including winning six golds across the 2017, 2019 and 2022 championships.
CASE BACKGROUND
The original lawsuit in 2022 alleged that Griswold’s sexual assaults started in the summer of 2021 at the Paralympics in Tokyo, and continued through August 2022 due to several failures of leadership. Egbert, 19 at the time, had “the mentality capacity of a five-year-old,” and was roommates with Griswold both in Tokyo and at the Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
The original lawsuit claimed that Griswold told Egbert, who has autism, that he “would get in trouble” and “police would come” if he told anyone what happened.
According to the complaint, the USOPC was aware of a “sheer number of complaints of abuse” against Griswold.
In 2020, a 16-year-old blind athlete allegedly reported to the USOPC that Griswold assaulted her in an elevator and later sent sexually suggestive text messages to her. That incident was reportedly investigated by SafeSport, but SafeSport only found Griswold’s misconduct to be “providing alcohol to a minor.”
In November 2023, just over one year after the case was filed, SwimSwam reported that Griswold had not been arrested “because of the lack of witnesses and there is not enough corroborating evidence presented to meet the standard of probable cause,” according to the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD).
In the wake of the lawsuit, U.S. Para Swimming shut down its resident training program in Colorado Springs in October 2024, while the USOPC was also at risk of insurance coverage as its commercial general liability insurer argued “it should not be held liable for coverage in a separate civil case accusing the USOPC of negligence” in a June 2024 lawsuit.
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