Colorado Swim Coach Jon Beber Sentenced to 42 Years to Life for Sexually Abusing Teenage Athletes He Was Hired to Train

Jon Beber coached Boulder Swimming, an elite club, from 1997 through early 2002. He left Colorado when allegations surfaced and later coached in Albany, Florida, and Atlanta. In April 2024 a Boulder County jury convicted him of sexually assaulting three teenage swimmers who had been in his care. On July 19, 2024, a judge stacked the counts into 42 years to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Beber was found guilty on April 16, 2024, on two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse (Class 3 felonies) and one count of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust (a Class 4 felony), according to the District Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial District. His bond was revoked after the verdict.

How the case came back

Prosecutors said the abuse ran from 1997 through 2001, when the swimmers were teenagers. In early 2002 several athletes realized they had shared similar experiences and told a parent. Parents confronted Beber. He resigned and left the state. No reports went to police. Trial testimony indicated swimmers had raised concerns with Colorado Swimming and USA Swimming then, but without a formal complaint to law enforcement, nothing followed.

The case reopened in summer 2021 when one of the victims — by then an adult preparing to become a coach herself — called Boulder authorities about the statute of limitations. Three victims came forward. Charges were filed in 2022. Beber was arrested in July 2022 in Atlanta and extradited. KUSA-TV (9NEWS) covered the arrest and the trial that followed.

42 years to life

On July 19, 2024, a Boulder District Court judge sentenced Beber, then 54, to 18 years to life on each of the two pattern-of-abuse counts and 6 years on the remaining count, consecutive. He is not eligible for parole until he completes sex-offender treatment. Position-of-trust statutes exist because a coach’s access is the crime’s infrastructure. USA Swimming and club boards have spent two decades claiming they closed those doors. Beber’s timeline says the doors stayed open long enough for him to keep coaching in other states.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said, «This lengthy prison sentence is the right outcome. As the judge noted, this type of case is every parent’s worst nightmare. Parents drop kids off for practice or school and hope that the adults in charge are not abusing their position of trust. This defendant did exactly that, for years.» The Boulder County announcement is still posted.

Related: hiding in plain sight, Hollywood’s open secret, and The AEGIS Alliance’s Crime News desk. If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual abuse, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673.