USOC goes nuclear on USA Gymnastics

The U.S. Olympic Committee is moving to revoke USA Gymnastics’ status as the governing body for the sport at the Olympic level, meting out the nuclear option to an organization that has botched its own reorganization in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal involving former team doctor Larry Nassar.

In an open letter to the gymnastics community Monday, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said “you deserve better,” and that the challenges facing USA Gymnastics are more than it is capable of overcoming as currently constructed.

The U.S. Olympic Committee also has faced criticism for not responding quickly and appropriately to sexual-abuse cases, and though the move was cheered by the gymnast whose revelations helped propel Nassar’s years of abuse to the fore — “THANK YOU,” tweeted Rachel Denhollander — others viewed it as a ploy to shift blame.

“Today’s announcement by USOC seeks only to deflect from their total failure over decades to protect the gymnasts in their care,” said a statement from attorneys Michelle Simpson Tuegel and Mo Aziz, who represent Olympian Tasha Schwikert and her sister, Jordan, in their lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

This year, the U.S. Olympic Committee said it was seeking to remove itself as a defendant from a number of lawsuits — including those filed by gold medalists McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman — claiming Nassar did not work for the federation, nor were his crimes foreseeable by the committee. The lawsuits claim the U.S. Olympic Committee, as the umbrella organization that oversees USA Gymnastics, should have done more when it learned of the abuse.