Definitions

Bodily injury: means bodily injury, sickness, or disease sustained by any person which occurs during the policy period, including death at any time resulting therefrom.

Property Damage: means physical injury to tangible property not owned by the insured including all resulting loss of use of that property.

Personal injury: means injury arising out of false arrest, detention or imprisonment, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction, invasion of privacy, oral or written material that slanders or libels a person or organization or a person’s organization’s goods, products or services or violates a person’s right of privacy, the use of another’s advertising idea, infringing upon another’s copyright, trade dress or slogan.

Sexual Molestation: means injury to any person for sexual abuse, sexual molestation, sexual exploitation, or sexual injury. There is no coverage for the person that personally participated in committing any sexual abuse or molestation or who failed to take action to prevent recurrence after having personal knowledge of any sexual abuse or molestation, exploitation, or injury.

The Directors & Officers/Employment Practices Liability insurance provides coverage for wrongful acts or decisions not resulting in a bodily injury or property claim which would be insured by a General Liability policy.  Examples of the types of claims that would be insured by a Directors & Officers Liability are a) wrongful termination of an employee; b) not filing a report of occurrence on a timely basis causing additional medical expenses to a swimmer's family; c) mismanagement of investments; or  d) disciplinary action against an athlete whose parents allege the action prevented the athlete from making a “Q” time or elite team.

The USA Swimming insurance program does not provide coverage for participation in biathlons or triathlons, or similar types of activities. Why? The USA Swimming coach has no way of actively supervising a group of athletes who will, by necessity, spread throughout the field and may become mixed in with other competitors.

Rule 502.6.4 of the USA Swimming rulebook states that “Anyone who coaches swimmers at a USA Swimming practice or competition, must have satisfactorily completed safety training, criminal background checks and other coaches’ education as required by USA Swimming.”  Coaching by any other person who is not a registered coach member, including USA Swimming athlete members, is not permitted with the exception of the now available non-athlete dryland only coach. 

There is now an exception for individuals who are not doing any coaching in the water but who are only providing dryland training activities.  In those instances, if the person and the club for whom the individual is providing services want the benefit of USA Swimming’s insurance coverage, then he or she must become a non-athlete member of USA Swimming and complete the required background screen check and take the Athlete Protection Training test.  The insurance company is not requiring that the individual become a registered coach member because the person is not coaching athletes at swim meets or practices is only doing dry land training.

The USA Swimming insurance program does cover most dryland training activities.  Dryland training may include general fitness types of exercises, such as calisthenics, weight training, running and biking, as long as the activity is under the direct supervision (direct line of sight) of a USA Swimming member coach.  It can incorporate specialized equipment, such as surgical tubing, paddles, and the swim bench.  Running and biking are restricted to off road training only unless a specific event is granted approval.

A club’s USA Swimming insurance coverage is in effect when all three of the following conditions are met:

1. The club is a member in good standing of USA Swimming.
2. All participants swimming for the club are athlete members of USA Swimming.
3. All coaches, whether they are full-time or part-time, are coach members of USA Swimming with current certifications, education and background checks as required by USA Swimming.

If all three of these conditions are met, the USA Swimming club has the benefit of USA Swimming’s liability coverage for insured activities.

USA Swimming’s insurance coverage is a benefit of membership and both the USA Swimming coach and the member athletes would be covered under USA Swimming’s insurance program only if they are participating in a covered activity. If an Unattached coach is holding practice/lessons with unattached athlete members that would be considered a “private Lesson” which is not an insurance covered activity. Additionally, insurance certificates are only issued on behalf of a USA Swimming member club. Therefore, the coach would not be able to provide proof of insurance to any facility they attempt to rent or use.

As a general rule of thumb:  "When participating in a 'USA Swimming insured activity', a club must meet the definition of a USA Swimming member club for insurance purposes."  Let's look at an example involving a dual YMCA-USA Swimming club member.                

1. When the YMCA/USA Swimming member club swims in a USA Swimming sanctioned meet, all swimmers and all coaches must be USA Swimming members. The YMCA may have 100 swimmers, but when it goes to a USA Swimming sanctioned event with 75 of its swimmers, all coaches and all 75 swimmers must be USA Swimming members. 
2. When swimming as a YMCA team in YMCA competition, there is no USA Swimming insurance coverage.
3. In a non-hosted “approved” meet, where all the team members are USA Swimming members, all coaches are USA Swimming members, the USA Swimming insurance is excess coverage to that provided by the “Y” or other non-USA Swimming organization.  If the USA Swimming team hosts the “approved” meet, the USA Swimming coverage will apply subject to specific terms, conditions and exclusions.

The Club may become a member, but there is no liability insurance if non-USA Swimming members are allowed to participate in USA Swimming activities other than tryouts. Nonmember athlete participation is an insured activity only in a "tryouts" situation which is subject to certain time and supervisory conditions.  In the event of a claim, the insurance company will verify that all in the water at the time the claim occurred were USA Swimming members and that all the coaches are USA Swimming members. 

Socials:

1. USA Swimming member club is having an outing at a water park. 

Fundraisers:

1. USA Swimming member club is selling hot dogs and soft drinks at a fair booth to raise funds. 
2. USA Swimming member club has a yard sale at the local flea market.  

Activities that would not be considered "approved" would be, white water rafting; triathlons; ongoing bingo games; lesson programs for non USA Swimming members.

Club coaches and administrators should use common sense when considering a social or fundraising activity.  "Is this an activity that I would consider normal to our operation?   Does it present an unusual or unacceptable risk to our swimmers?  To our chaperones?"

It is suggested that you receive prior approval for your club’s social and fund-raising activities.

The USA Swimming program provides coverage for USA Swimming activities, primarily in the water activities.  The program does not provide coverage for facility maintenance issues (i.e. over-chlorination, potholes on the premises, failure to salt icy walkways, etc).  When a facility is added to the USA Swimming General Liability policy as an Additional Insured, coverage is provided for the facility for claims resulting from the USA Swimming entity's negligence.  In other words, including a facility as Additional Insured on the USA Swimming policy does not include coverage for premises issues (sole negligence).  We urge you to review the contracts you have with the facilities you use to be sure that you are not agreeing to provide coverage for premises/ maintenance claims. There is no coverage for these claims.

Example:  Mary Smith, a non-member parent of USA Swimming, comes to watch her son, Bobby, swim at a practice.  When she is leaving the pool area, she steps in a gopher hole breaking her ankle.  A claim is submitted to USA Swimming and is denied.  The facility is responsible for the maintenance of the area around the pool.

The Online Report of Occurrence form, available on the USA Swimming website at this link: www.usaswimming.org/ROO, is used for this purpose. Reporting all incidents, no matter how minor, is important to put both USA Swimming and its insurer on notice of accidents and potential claims.

A Report of Occurrence form should be submitted any time an injury occurs at a USA Swimming function, whether or not it involves a USA Swimming member. Injuries involving spectators should also be reported.  The form should be filled out by a meet director or by any club personnel responsible at the time of the incident; the parents of the injured athlete should not be asked to complete the report form.

After receiving the report, USA Swimming National Headquarters enters information about the incident into the USA Swimming database for future safety education and insurance references.  When a Report of Occurrence form indicating an athlete or non-athlete participant is a USA Swimming registered athlete, information about the Excess Accident Medical Insurance Policy and claim forms are sent to the injured party(’s) family.  This program is excess of other primary insurance in place through the member family’s employment, school or family.  The deductible is the greater of the total of other collectible benefits from primary insurance sources applicable to the injury or $1000 when there is no primary insurance.  

Our recommendation would be that there should be some sort of monitoring/guidelines in place for the locker room in line with Safe Sport recommendations/requirements. Common sense should dictate what those guidelines/procedures should be. If parents are asked to be monitors, there should be two parents in the locker room, and, of course, they should be of the same gender as the locker room they are monitoring. Be advised that if a parent is monitoring locker rooms on a regular basis, they would need to become a non-athlete member of USA Swimming and be subject to the required background check and the Athlete Protection Training class.

Parents being allowed on deck during practice is a liability and safety issue. The policy against such a practice is in place to prevent distractions for the coach(es) as well as the athletes. The only individuals that should be on deck during a practice are the USA Swimming coach members and those individuals the coach(es) deems necessary to assist in conducting the practice, e.g. senior swimmers helping with age group swimmers; volunteers acting as timers. 

This would be an insured activity.  There is an agreement between USA Swimming and USMS allowing their members to practice with either organization as long as a USA Swimming member coach is on deck.

Two different situations. If they want to swim with their kids in the same lanes while the kids are practicing, they must join USA Swimming as an athlete member.  If they are swimming in separate lanes and are not being coached by the USA Swimming club coach, they don't have to join. However, this activity is not an insured activity.

This is not an insured activity unless:

1. There is a distinct lane separation (USA Swimming members are in lanes 1-3 and non- USA Swimming members are in lanes 4-6). One coach cannot supervise both groups at the same time.
2. An individual(s) is involved in a USA Swimming tryout.
3. The non-USA Swimming members are US Masters members.

If the coach were in the water swimming, there is no way the athletes are under his/her “direct supervision or direct line of sight.”  Therefore, the insurance would be void.

There must be direct supervision for in water or out of water activities for coverage to be in place.  Direct supervision has been defined as meaning “line of sight” between the supervising coach and the athletes involved in the activities.  

Yes.  The club may build or alter starting blocks to suit their needs.  The blocks must comply with standards as stated in USA Swimming Rules and Regulations. The club is not covered for alterations performed on blocks for other clubs or facilities.

Coverage is same no matter where/how far traveling.  All participants must be USA Swimming members and coach or parent must be supervising.  Parent volunteers are covered while in an official capacity with team.  The travel itself is not covered.  We do not provide any auto coverage at any time.  Drivers of cars/vans would have to look to their own insurance company for coverage in event of an accident or the team can purchase the additional insurance when renting the car/van.  The general liability coverage and excess accident medical coverage is in effect for the USA Swimming members.   Sightseeing is covered.  Please use common sense and caution. Accidental damage to hotel/dorms may be insured by the liability insurance program.

No.  If a parent or coach uses their car to transport athletes or other club members to/from a practice or meet, the club has coverage under the car owner’s policy.  This is also true when the club rents a vehicle. Whoever signs for the rental vehicle is the individual whose insurance would respond for the club if an accident occurred and people in the vehicle were injured. Exception: When a club rents a vehicle from Enterprise or National under the USA Swimming Program.