USA gymnastics sexual assault investigation prompts urge for culture change

For years, USA Gymnastics felt it aggressively safeguarded hundreds of thousands of athletes from sexual abuse. Yet the protocols designed to show gymnasts, coaches, staff and parents how to report abuse were muddled, confusing and not well enforced.

The fallout, according to a former federal prosecutor hired to independently review the organization’s handling of abuse cases, was “inadvertent suppression” and a culture that emphasized performance over protection.

A culture in desperate need of change.

“There needs to be a clear articulation that the culture is athlete safety first, not just success on the field,” Deborah Daniels said Tuesday after releasing her lengthy report. “It needs to start with the board (of directors) and needs to permeate through the entire organization.”

Daniels laid out 70 recommendations — all unanimously adopted by the board Monday night — aimed at giving USA Gymnastics more power to monitor the safety of 200,000-plus athletes affiliated with member gyms.

“We want to prevent abuse,” Daniels said. “We know there will still be abuse occurring, (but we) want to make sure reporting and handling of report is done as well as possible.”

USA Gymnastics ordered the review last fall following a series of civil lawsuits filed against the organization and a former team doctor by a pair of gymnasts who claim the physician sexually abused them during their time on the U.S. national team. USA Gymnastics has denied wrongdoing. The organization stated it went to authorities quickly in the summer of 2015 after hearing claims of abuse against Dr. Larry Nassar but later amended the timeline following a Wall Street Journal report, saying it conducted a fiveweek internal review before going to the FBI.

“A delay is impermissible,” Daniels said.

A Michigan judge on Friday separately ordered Nassar to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting six young gymnasts who said he molested them while they sought treatment for injuries. It is one of four criminal cases against Nassar in the state.

FIFA

FIFA WORLD CUP INVESTIGATION REPORT RELEASED » After years of intrigue about allegedly corrupt World Cup bidding, FIFA published an investigation report Tuesday that showed how voters exploited the murky system yet allowed Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

FIFA published investigator Michael Garcia’s 430-page dossier less than 24 hours after Germany’s biggest-selling daily Bild began reporting extracts from a leaked copy it received.

The full report verified the broad conclusions of a summary of Garcia’s work published by FIFA in November 2014.

A Russia bid backed by Vladimir Putin gave limited cooperation to Garcia’s team which found no evidence of undue influence. Putin met six of 22 FIFA voters before the December 2010 elections.

Qatar’s ultimate victory over the United States tested FIFA’s bid rules to the limit. The bid team used a full range of lavishly funded state and sports agencies, plus advisers who raised Garcia’s suspicions.

Garcia’s report was once a holy grail for FIFA critics who hoped it would be explosive and force a re-run of the World Cup hosting votes.

Many believed Russian and Qatari bids must have behaved badly to persuade a FIFA executive committee lineup in 2010 that has since been widely discredited.

“Bid teams operated in an environment where a number of (voters) did not hesitate to exploit a system that in certain respects did not bind them to the same rules applicable to bid teams,” Garcia wrote, noting that some FIFA officials “sought to obtain personal favors or benefits.”

Some of those same FIFA officials have since been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in a widespread racketeering case that is ongoing.

Garcia’s team did not have the evidence-gathering powers of a criminal probe and it was clear they would be hampered even before starting a globe-trotting 2013-14 investigation.

His full report detailed how: FIFA voters refused to be interviewed; bid teams such as Russia and Spain were evasive; potential key witnesses could not be tracked down.