Solutions needed after blame was laid

The report was every bit as thorough as it was cringe-worthy.

And yet, when it was all picked apart and combed through, there wasn’t much new there.

The 233 pages of details about how Olympic leaders and the FBI responded — or didn’t — to sexabuse allegations against Larry Nassar was yet another entry in an endless exercise in looking backward to respond to a crisis that needs some new ideas before anything is truly fixed.

Hampered by their own red tape and glacial pace in grasping the enormity of the issue, neither the U.S. Olympic Committee nor USA Gymnastics — or even Congress — has come up with any ideas comprehensive enough — beyond firing everyone and blowing up organizations — to turn this ship around.

How was the report helpful? “By understanding the failures of the Olympic community, it will enable the USOC to take action to protect athletes in the future,” said USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland who, four months into the job, must wake up each day wondering what she got herself into.

Bravo to her for doing SOMETHING, anything, to try to move the ball forward.

On Monday, she swiftly canned chief of sport performance Alan Ashley, whose name was added to the long list of good guys who, when faced with suspicions that young women were being molested, responded as though the change-oil light had come on in their car instead of acting like it was people’s daughters in imminent danger.

Last month, Hirshland came off as bold by starting the decertification process of USA Gymnastics, which, as the report details, was an enterprise in which two people held all the power: Super-coach Martha Karolyi had carte blanche to do, or ignore, anything so long as she kept producing gold medals.

The USOC announced an initiative earlier this year to make it easier for athletes to cut through red tape and ask for help, whether it involves a simple problem in training or something as serious as reporting sex abuse.

The announcement deserved more attention than it got. It represented an attempt — a rare attempt, to this point — to shift away from the blame game and present a real solution for a problem that cannot be solved simply by firing everyone.