Ariana Kukors

Ariana Kukors was born on June 1, 1989, in Federal Way, Washington, as the daughter of Peter and Jaapje Kukors. At the age of 5, Kukors had already begun swimming as she was highly influenced by her older sister, Emily Kukors, who swam for Auburn University.

The Kukors family has 3 daughters in total, Mattie Kukors being the youngest, who swam for the University of Michigan from 2009 to 2011, and currently swims for Arizona State University. Ariana Kukors graduated from Auburn Mountainview High School, Auburn, Washington along with the class of 2007. She swam at the University of Washington for the Washington Huskies swim team.

However, after one year she decided to leave since the swim teams were cut as a cost-saving measure by the University’s athletic department.

She then shifted to Fullerton, California to train with the Fullerton Aquatics Sports Team (FAST) after Sean Hutchinson, her coach was named the head coach, in August 2009. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Chapman University in 2012.

In 2004, Ariana Kukors competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the 200-meter individual medley, when she was 15 years old. She could not progress any further than the semi-finals and finished in the 10th rank.

Then she competed at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships but still couldn’t qualify. Kukors was finally qualified to swim at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships at the 2006 National Championships after she had ended the race ranking at the second place in the 400-meter individual medley.

She won her first international medal after finishing second in the 400 meters individual medley at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

Kukors was able to bring one gold and one silver medal home, at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships held at Rome. As she won the gold in the 200-meter individual medley, she also broke the world record of 2:08:45 with a new record time of 2:07:03 in the semifinals.

She also won the first and second place in the 200meter individual medley and 400-meter individual medley respectively at the 2010 National Championships. In 2011, Kukors lost her crown after finishing third to Chinese Ye Shiwen and Australian Alicia Coutts. She came in fifth at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the finals of the 200-meter individual medley. 

Finally, after a brilliant career, Ariana Kukors announced her retirement on the 26th of September in 2013. Currently, she is working for LifeWise Health Plan of Washington as the director of health inspiration and writes the online magazine Actively Northwest.

Ariana Kukors is available on Twitter as @Arianakukors and has 46.8 thousand people following her. She is usually active on her Twitter account and has tweeted 4700 times.

Her Twitter bio describes her as a “USA Olympic Swimmer”, “2x World Champion” and that she’s “addicted to Engagement & Connection, Coffee, Green Smoothies.”  

She is not as popular on Instagram but still has 8900 followers.

The former Olympic Swimmer Ariana Kukors accused her former Olympic coach Sean Hutchison of abusing her in her emotional essay posted on Friday. To be specific, she included suffering years of “pain, trauma, horror, and abuse”. 

In her essay, Kukors has alleged Hutchinson of manipulating and “grooming” her since she was a 13-year-old and even confessed that at some point, their relationship turned sexual. She had quit swimming and moved in with Hutchinson in Seattle after the 2012 Olympics.

She wrote, “I think back on those times now, tearfully asking why no one helped me…why no one stepped in to save me from this monster.” Although the USA Swimming team did investigate Kukors and Hutchinson’s alleged relationship back in 2011, Kukors confessed that she “was scared” and that she had “lied” because of which Hutchinson’s name was cleared. Since then Hutchinson has denied any and every allegations that he has been accused of.