Summit County climbing coach arrested on 10 child exploitation counts

A Summit County resident who worked as a USA Climbing strength and conditioning coach was booked into the Summit County Jail on Tuesday, April 28, on 10 counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor. The arrest put one of the region’s most visible youth-sports figures under a criminal microscope and immediately raised questions about how closely climbing programs supervise adults who work with teenagers.

Matthew Maddison, 37, was identified by USA Climbing as its Speed Team Manager and Strength and Conditioning Coach. The role gave him direct contact with some of the country’s top speed climbers, including a February 2, 2024 training camp in Salt Lake City that drew 24 athletes, among them climbers already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics. In a county where climbing, ski racing and other outdoor sports often double as mentoring pipelines, that reach matters as much as the arrest itself.

Investigators said the case involved online child sexual abuse material and alleged that the activity stretched back at least to July 2024. That makes the case especially sensitive for Park City families, because the accusations center on digital exploitation by an adult whose job depended on trust, access and repeated contact with young athletes. No public information tied the allegations to a specific Summit County training site or named local minor, but the arrest still reverberated through the youth-sports network that serves the Wasatch Back.

USA Climbing said it placed Maddison on unpaid administrative leave after learning of the arrest. The organization said the charges appeared unrelated to his coaching duties, said it was cooperating with law enforcement, and said its employees undergo mandatory background checks under policies aligned with the U.S. Center for SafeSport. That safety system is designed to police abuse and misconduct in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movement, where adult-minor contact can be extensive and hard for parents to monitor from the outside.

The broader enforcement picture shows how large online child-exploitation investigations have become. Utah’s Attorney General says the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force works with local law enforcement, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and other agencies to track online threats to children. Utah’s Operation Cyber Strike in April 2024 involved 31 agencies and produced 15 arrests. Nationally, NCMEC said its CyberTipline received 20.5 million reports in 2024, equal to 29.2 million separate incidents after bundled reports were adjusted, and reports involving generative AI content rose 1,325%.

For Summit County parents, the case underscores a hard truth: the risk is no longer limited to a gym floor or a road trip to a competition. It also lives in the digital spaces where coaches and teenagers communicate, and where a trusted adult can be accused of harming children long before any local family sees the warning signs.