Claudia Poll Ahrens, the Olympic 200m freestyle champion of 1996, is among leading swimmers from Costa Rica, who have accused their former coach, Francisco Rivas Espinoza, of various forms of abuse, including physical, psychological, and sexual.

The swimmers, including Marcela Cuesta Jiménez, and Manuel Rojas Giralt, claim that they have approached sports organisations to report their experiences but have been ignored.

Poll claimed Olympic gold in the 200m freestyle almost 30 years ago, on July 21, 1996, in Atlanta. She was the toast of Costa Rica when she claimed her country’s first and only Olympic gold medal in any sport. Indeed, Poll and her sister, Silvia, who claimed silver in the 50m freestyle at Seoul 1988, account for the only four Olympic medals ever won by Costa Rica. Claudia Poll also won 200m and 400m free bronze medals at Sydney 2000.

The Poll sisters still hold national records galore, Silvia's 1987 standards set in the 50 and 100m freestyle (26.32 and 55.52) and all three backstroke events (50, 30.15, 1989; 100, 1:01.86 (1987); and 200, 2:11.66, 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics), Claudia's records set in the 200 (1:57.48, 1997), 400 and 800m (4:09.61, 8:33.80, 1993), and the 200 (2:18.37, 1993) and 400 (4:50.35, 1993) medley.

Claudia Poll's time in the Atlanta 200m free final, 1min 58.16, kept at bay the then World record holder Franziska van Almsick, of Germany. In 2002, Poll, protesting her innocence, was given a four-year doping ban after norandrosterone, a metabolite of the banned steroid nandrolone, showed up in a test sample. Her ban was later reduced to two years by global swimming regulator FINA (rebranded World Aquatics in 2022) after some legal arguments were accepted in Poll’s challenge to the suspension on grounds that testing and sampling methods were flawed.

In interviews with Radio UCR Interferencia reporer Hulda Miranda, Poll, Cuesta Jiménez, Rojas Giralt and other former members of the Costa Rican swim team state that they had suffered various types of "aggression" from Rivas [Nicolás Francisco Espinoza Angulo] during their careers.

When Poll is asked if she would do it all again for the glory of 1996, she replies:

“Under those conditions, never, and I know my success would be greater with any other coach.”

Her testimony, now heading to a full inquiry, includes the following, as told to Interferencia.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred even after Poll had achieved big results. She makes the following allegations to Miranda:

“The first thing he did when I won the Olympic medal - and it's in the press - was to ask me what that time I'd swum was all about. He was belittling me. He always went through my personal belongings, stole my cell phones, and spent years investigating my social media accounts to find out information about me… He paid to have my conversations recorded and then repeated the things I'd said about them [NB: some of could only have occurred after the Atlanta 1996 Olympics because the relevant technology did no exist].

"He went through my trash. Once, he took used condoms out of my trash, photocopied them, showed them to me, and demanded I tell him who they belonged to. When he realised we were starting a relationship, he told my partner that he could have sex with anyone but me, that I was just there for training. The isolation was necessary to prevent me from speaking out and telling what was happening to me. With all this, I want to say that we need laws that make sense. These assaults and abuses cannot have a statute of limitations."

She adds: "After much work on myself and seeking psychological help, I understood that I was the one who stood on the sidelines, that I was the one who competed, and that the success was and is mine. Not that of a coward who, to feel important and a protagonist, needed to steal the spotlight from me."

Poll reveals that, recently, Rivas filed a restraining order against her, which she considers “a manipulation of the judicial system.”

Rivas is still coaching at 75 years of age.

He stands accused of "various forms of attack [abuse], including physical, psychological, and sexual". The swimmers said they would share some of their experiences but preferred to withhold details of some incidents others, which they are prepared to share with investigating authorities should they be heard. Their attempts to report has so far fallen on deaf ears, the swimmers told Interferencia, but they were determined to prevent others from having to suffer the same kind of abuse and would press ahead with their allegations.

The authorities they say they attempted to report to include the Costa Rican Aquatic Sports Federation (Fecoda), the National Sports Council (CNDR - a hierarchical body within the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation, or ICODER),and the National Olympic Committee (NOC). Only the latter made initial contact to investigate the case further, they told this outlet.

"Fecoda refused a hearing and, ex officio, determined that the matter was statute-barred," reports Interferencia, which notes that the authority did not respond to requests for comment.

Cuesta also sent an email to ICODER, but claims that they only questioned him about why he sent his complaint to that entity. ICODER told Interference that the email was addressed to another private entity (the NOC) and lacked context. Cuesta was given the details of others agencies he should contact and "was always treated with respect". Interferencia reports.

Costa Rican Sports Minister Donald Rojas stated that federations are private law entities with their own legal status and that ICODER has no influence on their decisions.

Of course, no such claims made by sports authorities or politicians should place sports governors or those working in sport beyond the laws of a country when it comes to abuse of athletes.

Henry Núñez, president of the Costa Rican NOC (the International Olympic Committee's Costa Rica headquarters) confirmed that the body he leads will conduct an investigation into the complaints. He told Interferencia:

"We have a Safe Sport Commission that handles all types of complaints, including sexual abuse, sexual harassment, psychological abuse, physical abuse, and negligence, and is responsible for providing follow-up and support, and in some cases, counselling, to complainants. Also, depending on the complaints, we forward them to the appropriate authorities in accordance with the laws or regulations."

He described such issues as extremely important for the NOC, adding:

"In fact, it is one of our priorities as the Olympic Committee to try to support people who may have been victims of this type of abuse, and we are effectively providing them with at least support and follow-up in these types of situations."

Due process will follow, he pledged.

Rivas, meanwhile, did not respond to Interferencia's requests for comment. Attempts were also made to reach him through the Costa Rica Tennis Club, where he still coaches.

Breaking years of silence, Marcela Cuesta Jiménez first posted her allegations on Facebook at the end of last year. She wrote:

"Many knew, but no one did anything. It's time to speak out and prevent it. In the recesses of my memory, a question I constantly ask myself as an adult still echoes: Why did no one speak up about what was happening on our swim team? The constant abuse—physical, psychological, and sexual—was an open secret. Leaders, parents, and teammates seemed to know, but the silence was absolute. No one reported it, no one confronted me. My parents, in their own way, tried to protect me. I remember how my father hated my coach and how my mother was always nearby, watching over me. However, not even her presence could break the cycle of fear I lived in. I didn't speak up either. The coach's threats were so overwhelming that they paralysed my voice. Fear surrounded me every day, to the point of convincing myself that staying silent was my only option.”

Now, Cuesta tells Interferencia:

“I was the one who stood out from the group, and that was the worst aggression against me. When I was very young, he tried to touch me in one way or another, and I immediately rejected him. He never did it again, but it led to psychological aggression."

She recalls one overseas competition for which h Rivas was not named as head coach so he forbid any of his swimmers to travel to the event. Cuesta's father told her she should go but be accompanied by an assistant/chaperone. The swimmerrecalled:

“When I returned, my teammates didn't speak to me, I can't remember, for about six months. I was the traitor. I came to training and everyone pushed me aside, no one spoke to me. The silent treatment… Then this hatred grew within me toward my teammates, who were just as manipulated as I was. I remember when Francisco used to tell me: 'You're brilliant, you're wonderful, you have incredible talent, but God made you stupid. You're dumb.' I retired from swimming at 16. I mean, I was a little girl when all this happened.”

Cuesta claims that Rivas threatened her that if she told anyone about what was happening, no one would believe her. She tells Interferencia: “Because the day I retired, he told me very clearly: 'If you open your mouth, I'll destroy you. Remember, I'm a national glory, and I'll destroy you."

She was then an outcast and it took decades for the swimmers to be reconciled. Says Cuesta:

“He (Rivas) decided to separate us. ‘Divide and conquer.’ In Claudia’s (Poll) case, we went, I don’t know, 28 years without speaking. Until one day Manolo (Manuel Rojas) intervened and wanted to reunite us. We found each other, he hugged me, and we both cried. Words were unnecessary between us because we never had a problem; he was always the one who created the problem. So, because of that, I made the decision to speak out.”

Poll is supporting her. She says: “The Federation (Fecoda) had spoken to me about this issue long before, and they told me ‘We understand your position, but if we receive a complaint, we will act.’ That's why I decided to be Marcela's witness, because I trusted them to act. Due process was followed, and nothing happened. But I'm no longer afraid, and I'm here to tell my story.”

Of her own experience, she tells Interference: "I suffered every possible attack...every single one." She will reveal the details to the pending formal reporting process but she appealed to those who will conduct the process to do the right thing, stating:

"If they haven't walked in our shoes, no one knows what we've been through, and that goes for anyone else who has experienced any type of attack. We need empathy."

Poll says she was disappointed by Fecoda's response to Cuesta's complaint. “I was a witness for Marcela in her complaint because Marcela was opening a door. And as a witness, I was going to say before the Federation: ‘I experienced abuse and aggression for years’ (…) They told me: ‘If there is a complaint, we will act.’ We acted, [and they are] saying the statute of limitations had expired? Where is their moral compass? ... Did they call us? Did they conduct an investigation? If only they had summoned us and seen that it's a repetitive pattern of actions against children ... and all to boast about an Olympic medal?"

The full Interferencia exposé can be found here:

Más allá de las medallas: Reconocidas figuras de la natación en Costa Rica denuncian a su exentrenador por agresiones - Radioemisoras UCR

Atletas que marcaron huella en la natación en Costa Rica, como Claudia Poll Ahrens, Marcela Cuesta Jiménez y Manuel Rojas Giralt denuncian a su exentrenador, Francisco Rivas Espinoza, por diversos tipos de agresiones. Además, afirman que han acudido a entidades del ámbito deportivo pero que no les han escuchado.

Radioemisoras UCRHulda Miranda

And you can here the swimmers' statements in this YouTube video (in Spanish):