Gymnastics Abuse Survivors/Heroes to be Honored by Foundation for Global Sports Development with Prestigious Humanitarian Award

Los Angeles, CA – February 7th, 2018 - The Foundation for Global Sports Development (GSD) will recognize the heroes of the Larry Nassar abuse tragedy for their courage in speaking up in the court room with GSD’s prestigious Humanitarian Award. The ceremony will be held in Los Angeles, California in March 2018.

As part of the award, GSD is donating $1 Million to create an educational program that will be led by the gymnasts as ambassadors. The new program will provide educational outreach focused on changing the culture of sport and preventing future cases of abuse in sports by educating parents, coaches and athletes about emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

The Foundation for Global Sports Development established the Humanitarian Award in 2010 to recognize individuals and organizations that work to preserve the values of fair play and sportsmanship in the world of sports. Recipients of this award exhibit the highest level of dedication to the Olympic movement and promoting a positive culture of sport.

"With the current culture of abuse, we felt we needed to deviate away from the traditional award and previous recipients," says Dr. Steven Ungerleider, GSD executive board member. "We wanted to honor the champions of the Olympic movement who had the courage to come forward at risk to their careers, family, and privacy to blow the whistle on sexual assault and predatory behavior in venues around the country."

"We are thrilled to not only honor these incredible athletes, but to announce the new program that has the capacity to serve communities and individuals throughout the United States," added GSD executive board member, David Ulich. "We hope that by helping to spread awareness and prevention education, this type of behavior and abuse will be abolished from sport completely."

The Foundation for Global Sports Development’s nonprofit film production company, Sidewinder Films, is currently working on a documentary film that covers the horrific Larry Nassar abuse scandal and explores the weak points in a sports system that allowed a predator to abuse women for over 30 years despite consistent allegations of abuse. The film, now in production, will be announced later this year.

To learn more about the Humanitarian Award and GSD’s decades long work to fight abuse in sports please visit The Foundation for Global Sports Development’s website.

Previous Humanitarian Award recipients include member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and twice Vice-President of International Rowing Federation, Anita DeFrantz, a chairman of the IOC’s Medical Commission, Professor Arne Ljungqvist, M.D., second President of the International Paralympic Committee, Sir Philip Craven, and first president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Richard W. Pound.

To learn more about Sidewinder Films please visit Sidewinder Films website.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only