U.S. Gymnastics ends training at Karolyi Ranch
Ex-team doctor’s sexual abuse of athletes casts isolated environment as unsafe
USA Gymnastics, in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal and comments by gold medalist Simone Biles, ends its lease to hold training camps at the Karolyi Ranch near New Waverly.
Once viewed as a beacon of “dreams, desire and dedication” for a generation of young women, now symbolic of years of abuse and betrayal, the Karolyi Ranch north of Houston will no longer serve as the national training center for the USA Gymnastics women’s team.
The federation said Thursday it has canceled its lease to use the gym and housing complex, owned by famed coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi in the Sam Houston National Forest, as the site of monthly training camps for the nation’s elite gymnasts who have won the last two Olympic team gold medals and the last four Olympic all-around championships.
The announcement by Kerry Perry, USA Gymnastics’ new president and CEO, came as a judge in Michigan prepares Friday to sentence former team doctor Larry Nassar, who has pleaded guilty to seven state counts of criminal sexual conduct and is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment.
“It has been my intent to terminate this agreement since I began as president and CEO in December,” Perry said. “Our most important priority is our athletes, and their training environment must reflect this. We are committed to a culture that empowers and supports our athletes.”
Gymnasts were scheduled to arrive Monday at the facility, located in Walker County about 11 miles northeast of New Waverly, for the first in a series of monthly training camps designed to prepare top gymnasts for national and international competitions.
However, USA Gymnastics moved quickly to terminate the lease and to cancel the scheduled camp after Perry attended Nassar’s sentencing hearing in Lansing, Mich., where dozens of victims detailed their stories regarding Nassar’s abuse. The decision came three days after four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles of Spring, one of Nassar’s victims, wrote that it “breaks my heart” to think of returning to the ranch to train for the 2020 Olympics.
The Karolyis used the ranch, which they have owned since 1983, as an occasional training base for gymnasts such as Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal. But in 1990, when Bela Karolyi became national team coordinator, succeeded by his wife Martha in 2001, it became a monthly destination for elite team members to train as a group while also maintaining ties with their hometown gyms and coaches.
The semi-centralized system, a variation on the system the Karolyis experienced in their native Romania, produced results — all-around Olympic gold medals in 2004 for Carly Patterson and in 2008 for Nastia Liukin, both of Dallas, in 2012 for Gabrielle Douglas and in 2016 for Biles, plus team gold medals in 2012 and 2016.
Contrast with image
Gold medalist Aly Raisman said Nassar capitalized on the isolated nature of the camp, where parents where forbidden to attend and where the competitive stress of the sport was ramped up to new levels, to gain the trust of his victims and engage in abuse under the guise of medical treatment.
It was a sense of reality very much at odds with the bucolic picture of the ranch depicted in such portrayls as the NBC Sports documentary “The Ranch,” which aired before the 2016 Olympic trials and began with narrator Kristen Bell saying, “It welcomes dreams, desire and dedication, and it birthed some of the greatest stories you will hear in Olympic sports.”
The film, which is still available on NBC’s website, was followed a few days later by the team’s performance in Rio de Janeiro, where Biles won four gold medals and five overall, and then a few days later by a series of stories in the Indianapolis Star describing the allegations against Nassar, who also worked as a team physician at Michigan State University.
Purchase called off
USA Gymnastics had announced plans in 2016 to purchase the 36.2-acre portion of the 2,000-acre ranch that included the gymnasium and residential complex from the Karolyis and to continue using the property as a national training center, but that agreement was canceled after the charges against Nassar emerged.
Houston attorney Gary Jewell, who represents the Karolyis, said the lease agreement between the couple and USA Gymnastics included a right of early termination. He did not know immediately how much time remained in the agreement.
“It is their contractual right, and they (USA Gymnastics) exercised it,” he said.
Jewell said Martha Karolyi is out of the country but that he was scheduled to meet with the couple in February.
USA Gymnastics, which has its headquarters in Indianapolis, said it is in the process of looking for a temporary training site while it considers plans for a permanent replacement for the Karolyi Ranch.
Janis Burke, CEO of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, said the group has submitted a proposal to keep the site in the Houston area
“We would like to keep USA Gymnastics in Houston,” she said. “We think it is of value to have an Olympic training site here.”