Brock Turner, the former Stanford student and ex-swimmer who was sentenced to a meager six months for sexual assault last week, has been banned from USA Swimming, the governing body for professional swimming in the United States, for life.
Turner, who was convicted of raping an unconscious woman behind the dumpster of a frat house in 2015, will not be able to compete in any events sanctioned by the swimming organization according to an official statement on Monday, June 9.
The ban against Turner, who was slated to be a future Olympian for the U.S. national team, also disallows him from participating in future Olympic trials.
As a USA Swimming spokesperson said in an exclusive with USA Today:
Brock Turner’s membership with USA Swimming expired at the end of the calendar year 2014...He was not a member at the time of his crime or since then. USA Swimming doesn’t have any jurisdiction over non-members.
Brock Turner is not a member of USA Swimming and, should he apply, he would not be eligible for membership. ... Had he been a member, he would be subject to the USA Swimming Code of Conduct. USA Swimming strictly prohibits and has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, with firm Code of Conduct policies in place, and severe penalties, including a permanent ban of membership, for those who violate our Code of Conduct.
News of the ban became public the same day a Facebook group campaign—titled “Brock Turner for Olympics 2016"—also went viral. As Bustle succinctly stated, “the group [is] a bastion of misogyny, full of juvenile sexism and insecure displays of masculinity,” with a number of rape apologist memes to boot.
As of now, the Facebook page supporting Turner has been disabled.
Contact the author at jamie.reich@jezebel.com.
Image via Stanford University Department of Public Safety.