Coach: Pichler’s Companion to Blame

U.S. Olympic Coach Ron O’Brien said Monday one of the team’s top divers, David Pichler, is in the midst of a relationship that may have contributed to critical statements Pichler made against him at a Sunday news conference.

O’Brien is an eight-time Olympic diving coach who has hired a security guard and has obtained a court order to keep Pichler’s companion, Steve Guiffre, from O’Brien, his diving club and his family, according to a police report and a statement O’Brien released Monday.

“Approximately two weeks ago I was forced to start a lawsuit against David’s companion to prevent Mr. Guiffre from further harassing and threatening my family,” O’Brien said in a three-paragraph letter.

“In the past year David himself has asked my wife and I for help in trying to deal with the relationship he had with Guiffre,” the statement read. “Our advice and assistance was not followed, and apparently David has grown to resent our good intentions, as has Mr. Guiffre.”

Guiffre could not be reached for comment.

O’Brien’s statement was in response to Pichler’s remarks at Indiana University on Sunday after he qualified for the Olympic team in the 10-meter platform.

Pichler said Sunday that since he quit training under O’Brien last September, “I have been harassed, I have been assaulted, I have been pushed, my family has been harassed . . . [by] Ron O’Brien and his family. It’s been sheer hell on a regular basis.”

Pichler, from Butler, Pa., made a complaint last April against O’Brien that was investigated by U.S. Diving. The 22-member board of governors voted 16-0 (with six abstentions) in May not to take action, according to a statement released by U.S. Diving.

U.S. Diving spokesman David Shatkowski said most of the complaint dealt with alleged “verbal harassment.”

Pichler, 27, is a graduate of Ohio State and trained under O’Brien and his son, Tim, until last September. He worked out at the University of Miami until May, and now he trains with Ohio State Coach Vince Panzano.

O’Brien and Pichler could not be reached for comment.

In April, Guiffre and Pichler were removed from a Delta Air Lines flight at Cincinnati’s airport after they got into an altercation with Tim O’Brien following the national indoor championships, according to a police report.

Last Thursday, Guiffre showed up at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis and was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery, according to the Associated Press. The charges resulted when Guiffre became involved with police officers who were trying to get him to leave the natatorium, according to the report.

Guiffre was taken to jail and released Friday.