S2 E3: The Blog
Explicit content warning
10/20/20 • 27 min
2 Listeners
Tym De Santo says he was 17 when Conrad Mainwaring sexually abused him in the mid-’70s. But even 35 years later, he hadn’t processed it as abuse. Like so many others who had trained under Mainwaring, he still saw the coach as a positive force in his development, as someone who taught him how to be mentally strong, how to bring out the best in himself as an athlete and as a man. So, Mainwaring was far from De Santo’s mind when he took a trip to England with his mom and wrote about the journey on his personal blog. And yet, unbelievably, that innocuous post would begin the unraveling of the secret world of Conrad Mainwaring.
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Tym De Santo says he was 17 when Conrad Mainwaring sexually abused him in the mid-’70s. But even 35 years later, he hadn’t processed it as abuse. Like so many others who had trained under Mainwaring, he still saw the coach as a positive force in his development, as someone who taught him how to be mentally strong, how to bring out the best in himself as an athlete and as a man. So, Mainwaring was far from De Santo’s mind when he took a trip to England with his mom and wrote about the journey on his personal blog. And yet, unbelievably, that innocuous post would begin the unraveling of the secret world of Conrad Mainwaring.
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Previous Episode
S2 E2: Mind Games
In the fall of 1980, Robert Bender was an incoming freshman at Syracuse University, hoping to make the gymnastics team as a walk-on. Within minutes of arriving on campus, Bender was greeted by an athletic man with a charming British accent. Soon, Bender – and so many other young men – would become members of Conrad Mainwaring’s elite “Squad.” Mainwaring’s recruits had to follow important rules to stay on his team: There could be no drinking or drugs, and certainly no carousing with girls; but, above all else, there could be no talking about the Squad to outsiders. Mainwaring had a secret, and he wanted it kept.
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Next Episode
S2 E4: Confronting Conrad
When David O’Boyle decided to head to the UCLA track on the morning of June 28, 2016, he didn’t really have a grand plan; he just knew he had to confront Conrad Mainwaring. He wanted to stop him, but he wasn’t really sure how. So, when O’Boyle showed up, he started recording on his phone, and for 12 uncomfortable minutes, he called out Mainwaring as a child abuser. Then he left, unsure what exactly he had accomplished. What he didn’t know – what he couldn’t have known – was that his confrontation was one in a series of unlikely events that ultimately would bring Mainwaring to justice.
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