John Babington, the longtime coach of 1992 Olympic bronze medalist Lynn Jennings and an assistant coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, was banned by the U.S. Center for SafeSport on December 22, 2022.
A Boston Globe report on February 17, 2023, gave more detail about what caused the ban.
Babington was a coach of the women’s Liberty Athletic Club in Boston during the 1970s, and an assistant coach at Harvard University. Later, he was the coach of cross country and track & field for 26 years at Wellesley College, from 1987 until 2013.
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Jennings said in the Globe article that Babington sexually abused her, starting when she was 15.
Babington also abused Darlene Beckford, a star middle-distance runner, when she was 17. He coached both athletes through the Liberty Athletic Club.
A third Babington victim was a 19-year-old student at Wellesley College, who asked not to be named in the article. When Wellesley College officials learned of the abuse, Babington was put on unpaid leave for one semester and subsequently allowed to return to his job, with assurances from a psychologist that he was not a threat to other women.
Melody Fairchild, who was a star high school runner, was also targeted by Babington when she was 18 and he was 46, but she was able to run away.
Babington, 77, admitted to almost all of the details of the accounts provided by the victims in the Globe report.
Jennings went to the Globe with her story in 2017 and to the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2019, according to the Globe. The Olympic Committee reported the abuse to SafeSport.
While SafeSport was researching the claims, Jennings searched for other victims and helped the investigation along. The Globe said she conducted more than 50 interviews over hundreds of hours. She directed SafeSport to Beckford, now Darlene Pearson, the former Wellesley student, and Fairchild.
“It got to the point that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to hold him accountable,” she told the Globe. “I feared my silence put others in jeopardy.”
When Babington was initially listed in the SafeSport database, his ban was subject to appeal.
The period for appealing the ban has expired, and he is permanently ineligible.
Babington’s crimes happened too long ago for him to face criminal prosecution in Massachusetts.
In a letter to the Wellesley College community, Dr. Paula Johnson, the college’s current president, apologized “for the abuse and pain our alumna suffered and continues to suffer due to Babington’s misconduct.”
She urged anyone with additional information about Babington’s sexual misconduct while he was a coach at Wellesley to alert the college’s Title IX coordinator.
This story has been updated.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
