Olympic swimmer reveals top coach left her ‘broken' as slew of athletes come forward against ‘toxic' regime

The Irish Sun

19-05-2025

AN Olympic swimmer has revealed a top UK coach left her "broken" by a "toxic" regime.
Rūta Meilutytė - who won gold at London 2012 - said Jon Rudd's focus on diet contributed to her developing an eating disorder and depression.
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Dr Jon Rudd was head coach at Plymouth Leander for 28 years
Credit: Getty
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Ruta Meilutyte, 15, winning the gold medal in the Women's 100m Breaststroke Final during the London 2012 Olympic games
Credit: Getty
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Meilutyte was hailed the club's biggest success
Credit: Getty
She is among 12 former swimmers to speak out against the alleged culture at Plymouth Leander swimming club, where Rudd coached from 1989 to 2017.
Rudd had faced allegations of bullying and verbal abuse, however no action was taken by Swim England despite a confidential 2012 investigation saying he should be suspended, reports
The probe had heard evidence from 17 witnesses.
The governing body's current chief Andy Salmon said he doesn't know why Rudd wasn't suspended, adding that he was "deeply, deeply sorry" to those impacted by the failings.
Rudd is set to become high performance director of Saudi Arabia's Olympic swimming team.
The coach had established Plymouth Leander as a successful training ground for producing Olympic athletes.
As well as coaching, he also had safeguarding responsibilities to ensure wellbeing.
Meilutytė moved to the UK from Lithuania in 2010 to be coached by Rudd - and two years later, aged 15, became the youngest person to win the 100m breaststroke.
Most read in Other Sports
Speaking to the
BBC
's Panorama, the now 28-year-old claimed she confided in Rudd that she'd been making herself sick to lose weight, but he laughed and said: "Well, at least you get the calories out."
She also alleged he told her her "ass was fat" immediately before a major competition when she was 16.
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Despite being hailed as the club's biggest success, Meilutytė said the regime "made me for a while and then it broke me".
She left the club in 2017 - the same year Rudd became Swim Ireland's director of performance swimming.
Other swimmers to make allegations against Rudd include Olympic bronze medallist
Cassie
Patten, who claims the coach made her train with an injured shoulder which eventually ended her career in 2011.
And Commonwealth Youth gold medallist Phoebe Lenderyou claimed Rudd's regime aggravated her eating disorder.
According to the investigation, Rudd's assistant coach, Lindsay Trimmings, should also have been suspended from Plymouth Leander.
Salmon told the BBC: "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."
Swim
England
is now reviewing 1,500 safeguarding cases carried out across England between 2002 and 2022.
Plymouth Leander said it was "deeply concerned" by the allegations but assured the club is "fundamentally different" since Rudd was in charge.
Plymouth College said its partnership with the club has been terminated.
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The Sun has approached Swim England and Plymouth Leander for further comment.
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