For three and a half contentious hours last week in a downtown office in Denver, the chief executive of U.S.A. Swimming tried to distance himself and his organization from a lawsuit involving a California girl who was sexually abused by her club coach .

Tim Hinchey III, who took over the national governing body for swimming in 2017, said that he was not familiar with the details of the case and that he had not met the victim, according to a deposition reviewed by The New York Times. He also said he was not aware of any way of verifying that coaches, parents or children had been trained to deal with sexual abuse issues, even though his organization certifies coaches and oversees the sport at nearly every level.

“We can’t be there, on the ground, to support that type of training every single day,” Hinchey testified.

His testimony is central to the case, which was scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday in Stockton, Calif. T he lawsuit will subject U.S.A. Swimming’s governance to intense and possibly discomfiting scrutiny at a time when numerous sexual abuse lawsuits involving Olympic sports — such as gymnastics, figure skating and taekwondo — are wind ing through the courts. There are also multiple federal investigations of Olympic sports federations, looking into their business practices as well as into accusations of sexual misconduct, according to people with knowledge of the investigations. The investigations were first reported in The Wall Street Journal.