Olympic scandal

USA Gymnastics deserves ‘death penalty’ for failing to protect young women athletes.

In Houston’s own backyard, at a ranch near Huntsville, young female athletes were delivered into the hands of a sexual predator. For decades, sports governing bodies and a major university failed to protect those world-class competitors who aspired to represent the best of the red, white and blue in the international arena.

That failure must be met with a sweeping response to prevent a future recurrence of the horrors these athletes suffered.

The perpetrator, Dr. Lawrence Nassar, appears destined to die in prison. But so many others bear responsibility for subjecting more than 150 girls and young women — including Olympic medalists — to sexual abuse under the guise of medical treatment.

Much of the blame falls upon the leadership of USA Gymnastics, the governing body that hired Nassar. The organization’s leadership developed a culture that allowed a predator to flourish.

The U.S. Olympic Committee must decertify USA Gymnastics as the sport’s governing body. This “death penalty” is well deserved, and the only appropriate response to USA Gymnastics’ inability to protect young athletes placed in its trust.

The USOC itself has been slow to even acknowledge the harm suffered by athletes that represented our country in international competition. The USOC holds a federal charter to operate the nation’s Olympic movement. Congress should investigate the USOC’s actions in the Nassar case and create appropriate legislation to better protect the athletes who dream of representing our country in international competition.

At Michigan State University, where Nassar was a faculty member and team physician for two women’s sports teams, leadership long denied any responsibility for his attacks on their athletes. That finally began to change this week with the resignations of Michigan State’s president and athletic director. The NCAA, which announced this week that it was beginning an investigation, must move quickly to examine MSU’s institutional responsibility in this horrific scandal and mete out appropriate sanctions.

Many of Nassar’s attacks occurred at a Houston-area ranch owned by Bela and Martha Karolyi, which served as a national training center for USA Gymnastics. Texas officials must thoroughly investigate crimes that happened at the Karolyi Ranch, and bring to justice anyone who abetted Nassar’s assaults.

President Trump and many congressional leaders have been largely silent as it became clear that multiple institutions failed to protect girls and young women competing in sports. It’s hard not to hear their silence as an admission of shame about their own sexual harassment allegations. The nation should view the 2018 elections as an opportunity to replace the representatives who lack moral standing to speak on this issue.

Nassar’s crimes were first reported by the Indianapolis Star in 2016, which also exposed USA Gymnastics’ extensive attempts to look the other way when coaches were accused of molesting children. As Nassar’s Michigan prosecutor said after his sentencing, the media did its job when other institutions failed these victims.

“We know federal law enforcement did not stop him, nor did trainers or coaches or dean or medical supervisors . ... But thank God we have these journalists and that they exposed this truth and that they continued to cover the story,” Michigan Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis said.

The horror inflicted on these athletes should be a wake-up call for sports organizations, corporate sponsors, Congress and sports fans in general to pay more attention to what young people face as they make the sacrifices to become world-class athletes.

For far too long, winning has been what mattered. With girl gymnasts, we celebrated the medal counts, while ignoring the mentally and physically abusive training environment at Karolyi Ranch and elsewhere.

At Nassar’s sentencing, Rachael Denhollander — who in 2016 bravely stepped forward to become the first of Nassar’s victims to publicly accuse him of abuse — asked questions that must be at the heart of how we respond to his abuse.

“How much is a little girl worth? How much is a young woman worth?”

The future actions of the USOC, NCAA and Congress will provide the answer.