Wittig drops appeal of SafeSport ruling
Tamaqua Area School Board President Larry Wittig has dropped his appeal against the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which permanently banned him from participating in any United States Rowing Association events.
Wittig, a former University of Pennsylvania rowing coach, faced allegations brought by Annette DeMichele, who was a part of the Penn rowing team decades ago in the early 1980s. She reported the situation to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which opened the investigation in February 2018.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, DeMichele claimed to have a year-and-a-half sexual relationship with Wittig.
After an Inquirer article broke in December 2017, Wittig admitted to the Times News that he had sex with DeMichele when he was coaching the rowing team at the University of Pennsylvania more than 30 years ago.
DeMichele said it was consensual at the time, but now, looking back, she felt she was unduly influenced by him.
DeMichele was 17 and Wittig was 32. He was married at the time.
Wittig was the coach of Penn’s women’s team at the time, while DeMichele chose to row for the men’s team. In addition to coaching Penn, Wittig has coached many Olympic caliber athletes during his career all over the world.
He said he dropped the appeal for financial and family reasons. “It got to the point where I had to make a judgment call,” Wittig said.
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