Sport Leaders Face Congressional Questions

(ATR) Senior sports officials in the United States Olympic movement will face questions on Capitol Hill about how better to protect athletes from abuse and exploitation.

On May 23, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled "Examining the Olympic community’s ability to protect athletes from sexual abuse". A planned Senate Subcommittee hearing on May 22 was cancelled after multiple witnesses declined to testify, including former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny, according to a report from the AP.

Acting USOC chief executive Susanne Lyons, and presidents from USA Gymnastics, Swimming, Taekwondo, and Volleyball are expected to testify before the House committee.

On the eve of the hearing, the United States Olympic Committee said it hired its first director of athlete safety. Wendy Guthrie is a former senior executive at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The committee announced the move on Monday in a release entitled "[USOC] continues to take action to further protect athletes".

Guthrie was hired for the position because of her "demonstrated strategic vision" to fix issues of athlete exploitation in U.S. sport, according to Lyons. Guthrie’s mandate will be to work with national governing bodies on "athlete safety efforts" as well as coordinating training sessions with the Olympic and Paralympic teams.

The USOC said it also has doubled its contribution to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, after chairman Larry Probst called the center "under resourced" last month.

"The importance of athlete safety cannot be overstated," Lyons said in a statement about the latest hire. "This is another critical step in our fight to prevent future abuse."

The USOC estimates that the ongoing independent investigation into who at the organization knew about the Larry Nassar scandal and when will be "publicly disclosed later this summer". Recently, Michigan State University announced that it had settled with the 332 victims of Nassar for $500 million in a civil suit brought against the school.

Two other recent civil suits have named the USOC and other NGBs as defendants in cases of sexual abuse in sports. A lawsuit filed in federal court in Colorado named both the USOC and USA Taekwondo along with the Lopez brothers, alleging a pattern of assault in the sport. The Center for SafeSport immediately suspended Steven Lopez following the suit, and the USOC has blasted its inclusion in the suit.

Olympian Ariana Kukors Smith filed a lawsuit this week against her former coach and USA Swimming. In the suit Kukors Smith says her coach sexually molested her and the NGB "enabled [coach] Sean Hutchison to abuse me for a decade" without being held accountable.

The Lopez brothers lawsuit was referenced in the witness statement for USA Taekwondo Executive Director Steve McNally. In his testimony he describes "numerous inherent challenges in pursuing claims against offenders" that have hampered the NGBs ability to punish athletes and coaches. McNally submitted over 20 pages of written testimony to the congressional subcommittee

All of the witness statements by USOC and NGB leaders have been posted online ahead of the hearing. In each statement the leaders defend recent upgrades to safe sport policies in the wake of recent scandals.

Notably, testimony from Kerry Perry outlines the ongoing governance reforms in USA Gymnastics and changing the body’s culture. Perry took over as chief executive and president of USA Gymnastics in Dec. 2017 after the USOC requested that the body’s board resign in en masse. Since then, she has begun an internal restructuring of the entire organization. Recently, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Perry fired nearly 10 executives in charge of different national teams. This included Rhonda Faehn, vice president of the women’s gymnastics program, who was fired while running a training camp.

"I came on board at USA Gymnastics in December from outside the sport and the Olympic movement," Perry wrote in her witness statement. "My singular goal—and the reason I accepted this mission—is to create a supportive and empowering culture that helps our athletes achieve their gymnastics dreams in a safe environment."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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