ESPN Investigates

When David O’Boyle decided to head to the UCLA track on the morning of June 28, 2016, he didn’t really have a grand plan; he just knew he had to confront Conrad Mainwaring. He wanted to stop him, but he wasn’t really sure how. So, when O’Boyle showed up, he started recording on his phone, and for 12 uncomfortable minutes, he called out Mainwaring as a child abuser. Then he left, unsure what exactly he had accomplished. What he didn’t know – what he couldn’t have known – was that his confrontation was one in a series of unlikely events that ultimately would bring Mainwaring to justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 1980, Robert Bender was an incoming freshman at Syracuse University, hoping to make the gymnastics team as a walk-on. Within minutes of arriving on campus, Bender was greeted by an athletic man with a charming British accent. Soon, Bender – and so many other young men – would become members of Conrad Mainwaring’s elite “Squad.” Mainwaring’s recruits had to follow important rules to stay on his team: There could be no drinking or drugs, and certainly no carousing with girls; but, above all else, there could be no talking about the Squad to outsiders. Mainwaring had a secret, and he wanted it kept. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the story of an obscure former Olympian and alleged serial sexual predator – and the 14-month ESPN investigation that brought him out the shadows. It’s the tale of more than 50 men who say that, over the course of the past 40-plus years, they were physically abused and mentally manipulated by their “coach.” And it’s the story of how they banded together, decades later, to find justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A look into the history of thoroughbred horse racing in America from the family dynasties that rose during the Industrial Revolution all the way through the 20th century, when a possible murder changed all of this from a sport to a business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Between July 2018—June 2019, 49 horses died at the Santa Anita race track in Southern California. The story of the dead horses spread— from the trade publications to The New York Times to Good Morning America until journalists, politicians, and DA investigators started to ask: should American horse racing still exist? From ESPN Investigates, Bloodlines examines horse racing’s current existential crisis. How did horse racing go from America’s most popular sport to a game driven by returns on investment? How have decades of breeding for races changed the horses themselves? And what might the dead horses at one track mean for the future of horse racing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices