USA Gymnastics board to resign amid sex abuse scandal: spokeswoman
Source: Reuters
The remaining directors of USA Gymnastics will resign following revelations that the former national team doctor sexually abused female athletes, complying with a demand from the U.S. Olympic Committee, a spokeswoman for gymnastics group said on Friday.
The USOC had threatened to strip the group of its power to run its sport if the remaining 16 directors did not resign by Wednesday. Five have already resigned as a result of the scandal.
“USA Gymnastics will comply with the USOC requirements,” Leslie King, a spokeswoman for USA Gymnastics, said in an e-mail on Friday.
The U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday and Friday joined the USOC in opening broad investigations into possible sex abuse in sports.
Read more: USA Gymnastics board to resign amid sex abuse scandal: spokeswoman
Far bigger than the USA Gymnastics and USOC scandal is that awaiting the US Congress.
Non-consensual activity, especially with the younger people, is rampant.
Of course, who is going to enforce "ethics" on this bunch of old lecherous dotards?
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Link to tweet
In his latest essay, Zirin quotes 3-time Olympic gold medal swimmer (1984) Nancy Hogshead-Makar, now an attorney and Title IX expert:
(Boldface emphasis is mine - DMH)
(quote)
Congress should investigate Scott Blackmun and the USOC because of their(unquote)
deliberate indifference to the safety of athletes.
The Olympic sports movement is a pedophile’s dream set-up.
Families are expected to give complete control over to the coach, oftentimes banning parents from watching practices. Emotional abuse is considered ‘motivation,’ and there is almost no coaching oversight from sport governing bodies like US Soccer.
To make matters worse, the US Olympic Committee’s official legal position is that the organization doesn’t protect athletes from sexual abuse, that removing pedophiles from the Olympic movement isn’t their job.
Really.
If that doesn’t raise the hair on your neck, consider that club owners are for-profit businesses and have zero economic incentive to report sexual abuse to police or child services. The bad PR could cost them dearly if word of the abuse got out. Club owners frequently fire the abusing coach quietly, and he is hired at another club, becoming someone else’s problem.
In 2014, I represented 19 victims of coach sex abuse in swimming, who were protesting Chuck Wielgus’s induction into the hall of fame, because of his miserable handling of sexual abuse. One week later Blackmun announced that the USOC would create ‘SafeSport.’
It took him almost three years to open its doors. No business can wait three years to start an HR department. Meanwhile, his pay and expense account ballooned.
Think of the hundreds—if not thousands —of victims that could have been saved.
All in all, a considerable number of heads should roll at all major parties: USA Gymnastics, the USOC, Michigan State University, and possibly Michigan state government officials, since MSU (unlike their rival in Ann Arbor) is a publicly-subsidized institution.
Given Michigan's current state government makeup (ie. Governor Synder) though, I'm not holding my breath.
