Robert Griswold

Early life Griswold was born in Hickory, North Carolina, lived in Freehold Borough, New Jersey, and now lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Raised in Freehold Township, New Jersey, he began swimming at the age of six at the Ocean County YMCA. He competed for his high school swimming team, and was team captain and MVP.

Collegiate swimming career Griswold competed for two NCAA Division II schools, Carson-Newman University in Tennessee and Fresno Pacific University in California during his NCAA swimming career that began fall 2015. He also competed for Indiana State University, where graduated from in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in communications. After college he began clerking at a law firm in St. Louis, Missouri.

International swimming career Griswold competed at his first international meet in 2014, and rose to prominence within the S8 classification initially gaining success in the distance freestyle events, winning his first world championships bronze in 2015. and was honored by being chosen as the flagbearer at the opening ceremonies.

In addition to his gold medal in the 100m backstroke, Griswold won a gold medal in the 100m butterfly at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. He placed fourth in the 200 m individual medley and fifth in the 400 m freestyle.

At the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships, Griswold claimed his third consecutive title in the 100 m backstroke S8. He also claimed world titles in the 100 m butterfly and 200 m individual medley. Griswold won silver medals in the 100 m freestyle and the 4x100 freestyle relay 34pts and a bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle.

Sexual assault allegations and lawsuit

In September 2020, the United States Center for SafeSport listed Griswold in its disciplinary database as having temporary restrictions for allegations of misconduct (which could cover a range of degrees of physical, emotional or sexual abuse). One month later, SafeSport confirmed that Griswold was eligible to compete at the Paralympic Games.

On October 20, 2022, SwimSwam detailed allegations of sexual assault against Griswold. He has been accused of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing Parker Egbert, a fellow member of the United States Paralympic Team, at the Paralympic Games and thereafter, including in the room that SafeSport allowed Griswold to share with the claimant at the Paralympic Games in 2021.

Griswold was later removed as a member of the 2022 USA National Team.

Egbert filed a civil lawsuit on November 11, 2022, against Griswold, the U.S. Center for SafeSport (for negligence, claiming SafeSport failed to protect Egbert from Griswold, despite previous complaints of sexual assault by Griswold having been made to SafeSport in 2020), and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in federal court in Colorado. The complaint alleged: "Remarkably, Defendant USOPC and Defendant U.S. Center for SafeSport ("SafeSport") allowed Griswold to supervise and share a bedroom with Plaintiff without any oversight, despite the fact that USOPC and SafeSport had received reports that Griswold was sexually assaulting other teammates," that "USOPC and SafeSport failed to inform Plaintiff's parents of the risks to their son due to his intimate and continuing proximity to Griswold, a known (or at the very least, suspected) sexual predator," and that "since its creation, SafeSport has faced significant scrutiny for its botched handling of abuse claims." According to the complaint, the accuser suffered injuries that required rectal surgery.