Former Kentucky swimmer speaks out after lawsuit against ex-swim coach Lars Jorgensen

One of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against former Kentucky swim coach Lars Jorgensen is speaking out. Briggs Alexander told The Athletic the university’s Title IX office didn’t want him to come forward about the allegations.

Alexander, who now identifies as male, was a member of the women’s swim team at Kentucky and later became an assistant coach. He alleged Jorgensen made sexual comments toward him and sent sexually explicit content to his phone while on the team. Then, during the 2021 season while transitioning, he alleged Jorgensen groped him at a staff dinner and raped him “on one occasion,” Alexander told The Athletic.

Once Alexander went to Kentucky’s Title IX office, he said he was “discouraged” from saying anything.

“I thought I could trust them,” Alexander told The Athletic’s Katie Strang and Jenna West. “I went to them and disclosed my abuse and thought it was going to be taken care of. … I was repeatedly discouraged and vigorously discouraged to not come forward.”

Alexander is one of two plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. Eastern District Court of Kentucky against UK, Jorgensen, athletics director Mitch Barnhart and retired head swim coach Gary Conelly – Jorgensen’s predecessor. According to the complaint, the two former athletes accused Kentucky of “complicity” for enabling Jorgensen “to foster a toxic, sexually hostile environment within the swim program and to prey on, sexually harass, and commit horrific sexual assaults and violent rapes against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who were reliant on him.”

Jorgensen denied the allegations in a phone interview with The Athletic.

 “None of that is true, so I don’t really have much further comment,” he said. “I’ve always tried to lead in a positive manner and do what’s best for each individual and the team overall.”

Jorgensen was Kentucky’s head swim coach from 2013 until his resignation in June 2023. Before that, he served as an assistant coach with the program before Conelly announced his retirement. Jorgensen was at the center of an NCAA investigation at the time, according to SwimSwam, which covers competitive swimming. He was effectively serving a “suspension,” the report said, after the NCAA looked into alleged compliance rules violations – which was not Jorgensen’s “first offense.”

In The Athletic’s detailed report, swim coaches at San Jose State went to their university’s Title IX officer in 2019 to report allegations they heard about Jorgensen – including a relationship with a swimmer at a prior job and a sexual assault accusation during his time at Kentucky. SJSU’s office then took it to UK.

Barnhart didn’t respond to The Athletic’s request for comment, and the university provided a brief statement on the matter, saying it takes those concerns “very seriously.”

“Mr. Jorgensen is no longer an employee of the University of Kentucky,” the statement read. “We do not, as a matter of policy, discuss specific personnel issues.”