Home Is UVA Swimming assistant coach Gary Taylor under contract, or not?
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Is UVA Swimming assistant coach Gary Taylor under contract, or not?

Chris Graham
swimming
Photo: © soem (Generated with AI)/stock.adobe.com

Gary Taylor, in Year 2 of a two-year probation for emotional abuse of swimmers at two colleges and a local YMCA, is still listed on the UVA Swimming website as an assistant coach, though it doesn’t seem that the University of Virginia has a record of his one-year contract from last year having been extended.

I filed a Freedom of Information Act request on May 4 for a copy of a fresh contract for Taylor, who was given a one-year contract extension on April 3, 2025 – inside of three weeks of the U.S. Center for SafeSport putting him on a two-year probation for emotional abuse of athletes at NC State, Auburn and the Piedmont Family YMCA.


What is the U.S. Center for SafeSport?

  • The U.S. Center for SafeSport is an independent nonprofit created in 2017 by an Act of Congress that gave the body the authority to resolve abuse and misconduct reports for more than 11 million amateur athletes in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement.

The 2025 extension ran out on April 30, so, two weeks ago.

On May 5, the FOIA office at UVA answered my request for an updated contract for Taylor with a copy of his 2025 deal.

I reached out to UVA Athletics to try to figure out what was going on, and was told to direct my questions on the matter back to the FOIA office.

Before I could do so, I got this followup email from the FOIA office.

“For clarification purposes, we typically provide what is available in our database pending receipt of a newer/revised record or confirmation that there is no other record by the departmental records custodian. In this case, we are still awaiting a response for a more recent document and will provide that when available.”

That was six working days ago at this point.

Either he signed a fresh contract before April 30, which is likely, or he didn’t.

It’s public record, and we have a right to see it.

ICYMI: Gary Taylor placed on two-year probation


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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].