Fault lines drawn in sex abuse scandal
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— On Friday the United States government shut down, but the United States Olympic Committee carried on. The American government doesn’t fund the USOC, though it is calling for it to be investigated, along with USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, as part of the staggering sexual abuse scandal involving American gymnasts at the hands of Dr. Larry Nassar. There is so much damage. It’s everywhere.
And it has followed the USOC to these Olympics, because it cannot be escaped. Nassar was sentenced last month. USA Gymnastics and Michigan State are both in incredible trouble. And as the Games began, the USOC had to tiptoe next to a valley of moral collapse, and try to make clear they didn’t fall in.
“To the women, both those who chose to testify and those who did not, who demonstrated tremendous bravery, poise and strength in the most difficult circumstances imaginable, let me say this: The Olympic system failed you, and we are so incredibly sorry,” said USOC chairman Larry Probst, as part of a two- minute opening statement.
It did not feel like enough, but what could? The Nassar scandal is among the worst things to happen in sports; America’s little girls were left unprotected, from the peons to the stars, and it should and likely will destroy USA Gymnastics. Michigan State will burn in places, too. It is the kind of thing that makes levelheaded people bay for blood.
And so as the Olympics began, the U.S. Olympic Committee didn’t talk about its snowboarders, or its skiers, or its glittering team. No, the USOC talked about new safeguards for these Games, following the establishment of a safety officer for athletes in Rio; new training for staff, new though unspecified medical standards, funding a safe sport centre. They talked about new standards and relationships with National Governing Bodies of sports federation. They apologized for a failure to attend the Nassar trial in Michigan, or the hundreds of victim impact statements that followed, until the end. They talked about an independent internal investigation, using the legal giant Ropes and Gray. So who knew what, when? What did they do? How much responsibility does the USOC hold over its federations? USA Gymnastics was a powerhouse. Larry Nassar may have molested gymnasts at Olympics, but whose fault was the failure? Who knew what, when?
They said the investigation will tell. Maybe it will. But there will be questions of moral and legal failure. There already are.
“What does it say to the girls and women who were abused in that sport and also in other sports, they’re coming forward every day now, what does it say that the USOC has so far emerged from this scandal unscathed, and (CEO) Scott Blackmun is still in charge, knowing he knew what USA Gymnastics knew in 2015?” asked Juliet Macur of the New York Times.
“We are far from unscathed,” said Probst. “There has been a tremen- dous amount of criticism about the USOC. We think that we did what we were supposed to do. Could we have done more? Of course. You can always do more.”
It seems obvious that to be criticized is not to be scathed; not when the chairman, vice-chairman, treasurer, and the entire board of USA Gymnastics have all resigned, and not when the president of Michigan State has stepped down. Probst said no staff — including Blackmun, who is recovering from cancer surgery, and who is said to have been alerted to Nassar’s abuses in 2015, a year before the Indianapolis Star published its groundbreaking investigation of his crimes — would be removed until the investigation was over.
“With regard to Scott, he has served the USOC with distinction since he rejoined the organization in 2010 and we think he did what he was supposed to do, and did the right thing at every turn,” said Probst. USOC board member and IOC member Anita DeFrantz said, “As an attorney, I would say he has to have an investigation . . . I’m pretty confident that it will show that he did a great job.”
It might be the right call, but people want blood. And in a failure this gigantic, they should.
“You said the Olympic system failed these athletes,” came another question. “Scott’s recent statement said the Olympic family. Nobody has said the U.S. Olympic Committee failed these athletes. Is it your position that the U.S. Olympic Committee did not fail these athletes?”
“We have consistently said, we could have done more,” said Probst. “We are not trying to absolve ourselves from responsibility. We could have done more. You can always do more. People have talked about, should we have been doing an investigation? The FBI was notified. They do criminal investigations, we don’t do that. But, of course, we could have done more.”
“But it’s your stance that the USOC did not fail these athletes?”
“I did not say that,” said Probst. “The Olympic system in the United States failed these athletes. We are part of the Olympic system, in the United States.”
It was clear he could not say the USOC failed, but of course it failed. The question is just to what degree, and in what way. The U.S. Olympic Committee is not the most important actor here. They are not the most culpable party, if they are culpable at all. They say they did the right thing. For their sake, they had better be right.