Former world swimming champ says coach sexually abused her

A former world swimming champion accused her former coach of sexually abusing her and taking "thousands" of sexually explicit photographs when she was a minor, CNN reported.

In an affidavit for a search warrant among documents filed in Washington State, Ariana Kukors, now 28, told Department of Homeland Security investigators that Sean Hutchison abused her starting in 2005.

Kukors posted a 4,000-word statement on her website.

"I never thought I would share my story because, in so many ways, just surviving was enough," Kukors said in a statement released by her attorneys. "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."

Kukors said she was 13 when Hutchison became her coach at King Aquatic Center in Seattle, CNN reported.

"Kukors claims that Hutchison started (in 2002) the process of child 'grooming,' a practice utilized by child predators to obtain a victim's trust with the goal of sexualizing the relationship," according to a statement from her attorneys.

In a statement he released last month, Hutchison, 46, said everything he did with Kukors was consensual. They had a "committed relationship" after the 2012 Olympics that lasted more than a year, he said.

"I absolutely deny having any sexual or romantic relationship with her before she was old enough to legally make those decisions for herself," he said in the statement. "Prior to that time, I did nothing to 'groom' her."

"I deeply regret that she would make these wild allegations all these years later."

Kukors won a world championship and was a world record-holder in the 200-meter intermediate medley. She also won a world title in 2010 in the short-course 100-meter intermediate medley. Kukors swam for the United States in the 2012 Olympics in London, CNN reported.

Hutchison was the head coach of the U.S. women's swimming team in 2009 and also was one of the Olympic coaches in 2008 at the Beijing Games.

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