Utah places gymnastics coach Tom Farden on administrative leave after abuse complaints
Less than a month after Tokyo Olympic alternate Kara Eaker and another gymnast said they'd been subjected to abusive coaching while at Utah, the school put head coach Tom Farden on administrative leave, effective immediately.
The decision is "not related to student-athlete welfare," Utah said in a statement issued late Sunday.
"This action comes after recent conduct and actions by Coach Farden ... which simply do not align with our values and expectations," the statement said, offering no other details.
Eaker, who helped the U.S. women win team titles at the 2018 and 2019 world championships, announced her retirement and withdrawal from school in a lengthy Instagram post on Oct. 20, citing verbal and emotional abuse and a lack of support from the university.
"For two years, while training with the Utah Gymnastics team, I was a victim of verbal and emotional abuse,” Eaker wrote. “As a result, my physical, mental and emotional health has rapidly declined. I had been seeing a university athletics psychologist for a year and a half and I’m now seeing a new provider twice a week because of suicidal and self-harm ideation and being unable to care for myself properly."
More:Elite gymnast Kara Eaker announces retirement, alleges abuse while training at Utah
Eaker did not name the coach. But four days later, former Utes gymnast Kim Tessen echoed Eaker's complaints about the "abusive and toxic environment" at Utah and specifically named Farden.
“Absolutely nothing ever justifies abusive behavior,” Tessen, a captain her senior year, wrote. “None of those coaching tactics are normal or healthy. It is not normal or healthy for your coach to make you feel physically unsafe. It is not normal or healthy to be broken down to the point where you don’t believe your life is worth living. Success is possible without being degraded and humiliated.”
More:Another University of Utah gymnast details abusive environment and names head coach
Utah did not address the complaints of either Eaker or Tessen, instead referring back to what it had said after an independent investigator had cleared Farden of abusive coaching.
In a report issued in September, Husch Blackwell concluded Farden "did not engage in any severe, pervasive or egregious acts of emotional or verbal abuse.” Nor did he “engage in any acts of physical abuse, emotional abuse or harassment as defined by SafeSport Code,” the report said.
Farden did, however, make at least one comment Husch Blackwell investigators classified as degrading. There were reports of others, but they could not be corroborated. Farden also “more likely than not threw a stopwatch and a cellular telephone in frustration in the presence of student-athletes,” the report said, but the incidents weren’t deemed abusive because they were isolated and not severe.
Farden has coached at Utah since 2011, becoming a co-head coach in 2016. He’s been the Utes’ sole head coach since 2020. Utah said associate head coach Carly Dockendorf will be the interim coach while Farden is on leave.