TOUGH TO FATHOM
This week’s Senate hearing reveals how solution to Nassar scandal is already failing
Four gymnasts spoke in front of Congress this week. It’s hard to process how disturbing their testimony was, on so many different levels.
Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols continue to lead, to inform and to reveal the horrors of a system that, as Raisman said, “institutionalized the tolerance and normalization” of sexual abuse of young girls.
Again, and again, for six years, these women have ripped the bandages off their wounds, working to prevent future victims and create change. And still they haven’t been able to get an independent investigation into the actions and coverups of Larry Nassar’s abuse by USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. To get the answers to some very basic questions.
“Why are we left to guess why USAG and USOPC deliberately ignored reported abuse?” Raisman asked. “Was it to protect the value of the sponsorships? The L.A. ’28 bid? Their own jobs? To avoid criminal liability? Perhaps. But why must we speculate when the facts are attainable, and the stakes are so high.”
This horrifying tale is one that unfolds too often in too many institutions. In a web of corruption, selfprotection, incompetency, delays, minimization, favortrading and a gross power imbalance. Powerful men — they were mostly men — didn’t want to believe the words of young women. Even young women who are famous and respected and make their country proud.
The optics of the hearing were a stark reminder of that power imbalance: The majority of the senators questioning the women were middle-age or elderly men, entrenched in their position of power. The FBI agents — the ones who minimized and falsified the testimony of the victims and even tried to trade favors with USA Gymnastics President Steve Penney — were men. Probably not whom you would want to interview your teenage daughter about her sexual abuse.
A disturbing subplot of the testimony is what one of the “solutions” has been.
In 2017, in reaction to the Nassar abuse, an act of Congress created the United States Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit organization
designed to protect victims of sexual abuse. Almost immediately, it reportedly had a backlog of thousands of cases, evidence of how pervasive this problem is in youth sports. The organization is supposed to create a database of allegations of sexual misconduct, review the cases, hand down sanctions and also provide training and education.
The organization is funded by the USOPC.
Is it working? Narrator: It is not.
“I don’t like SafeSport,” Raisman said when asked at the hearing. “I hear from many survivors, they report their abuse and it’s like playing hot potato. Someone kicks it over to somebody else and they don’t hear back for a really
long time.
“If you’re SafeSport and you’re funded by the organization you’re investigating, you’re likely not going to do the right thing.”
Raisman’s words echo what I’ve heard about SafeSport through my reporting on potential abuse scandals in the San Francisco area. Third-party reporting is minimalized, troubling because in many, many cases, victims are reluctant to come forward. Those making reports can’t be assured of anonymity and could lose their jobs. The “training” amounts to a quick quiz when applying for a coaching license.
And worst of all, SafeSport is funded by the very organizations — youth sports at every level may receive USOPC funding — it
is tasked with investigating.
“How can they say they’re a third party when they’re actually a client?” one coach wondered.
“Are they truly independent?” asked an attorney who deals with the agency. “I think everyone is frustrated.”
That was the consensus at the Tokyo Olympics, when the failures of SafeSport were on display, when fencer Alen Hadzic was allowed to go to the Games despite multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and actually had to be sequestered from his team by his federation.
Also problematic was the eligibility of beach volleyball player Tyler Crabbe, who was allowed to go to Tokyo because he successfully appealed a suspension by USA Volleyball, issued based on SafeSport guidelines.
Raisman called for a completely independent organization and said that SafeSport, at least in its current form, is not the answer.
“I know from too many survivors that (SafeSport) says we can’t help or ignore us or pass it on or kick it back,” Raisman said. “The priority doesn’t seem to be the safety and well-being of athletes. It seems to be protecting gymnastics and keeping the P.R. good.”
Raisman might be a good person to oversee the overhaul.
Self-protection of power is the fatal flaw in this entire sordid tale. Though the women’s testimony was emotional at times — Biles briefly broke down while speaking — it was also clinical, factual and fully exasperated. These women have testified to their abuse and trauma for years, as they transformed from
youngsters to adult women.
“I sound like a broken record,” Raisman said. “We’ve been treated like adversaries. Victim-shamed online. Gaslit by these organizations.”
Perhaps the most compelling words were the ones spoken by Biles, quoting first Nelson Mandela and then gymnast Rachael Denhollander, the first Nassar victim to come forward.
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” Biles said.
“How much is a little girl worth?”