USA Gymnastics redirects focus to repairing its image

INDIANAPOLIS – In the wake of a wide-ranging sex abuse scandal uncovered by The Indianapolis Star and played out dramatically last week in a Michigan courtroom, USA Gymnastics is in a fight for its life.

Corporate sponsors are bailing. Athletes are demanding reforms. Olympic officials are applying pressure. Criminal charges are possible.

And the Indianapolis-based nonprofit — once a cash-rich darling of the Olympic movement — is now squeezed between a self-inflicted public relations nightmare and a host of lawsuits that could cripple it for years.

The problem, experts say, is USA Gymnastics officials need to be transparent if they hope to regain the public’s trust while the lawsuits prohibit them from saying anything that would amount to an admission of guilt.

“Often in a crisis communications situation you will have the public relations folks in conflict with the general counsel or the attorneys,” said Michael Wyland, partner at Sumption & Wyland in Sioux Falls, S.D., and consulting editor of Nonprofit Quarterly. “Both are looking at the best interest of the corporation, but they see the best interest of the organization in very different ways.”

So USA Gymnastics finds itself in a bind as it attempts to weather a week of searing criticism.

The resounding public relations blows were delivered during the sentencing hearing of longtime Team USA doctor Larry Nassar, who last week was ordered to serve up to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting seven young girls.

“One of the key things to do is to overcommunicate,” Wyland said, including making officials available. But USA Gymnastics and officials did not respond to written questions submitted for this story, and new CEO Kerry Perry has said only that she would “look forward to the opportunity to meet sometime in the future.”

USA Gymnastics faces lawsuits in Georgia, California and Michigan alleging its leaders failed to stop coaches and other officials from sexually abusing young athletes. The first of those suits is headed for trial in April unless a settlement is reached.

In such situations, Wyland said, the communication is often driven by attorneys and legal concerns, which makes it difficult to persuade stakeholders, such as athletes and sponsors, that meaningful change is on the horizon.

In an apparent effort to speed the pace of change, the U.S. Olympic Committee issued what amounted to an ultimatum last week: All members of the board of directors must resign by Wednesday or USA Gymnastics would be stripped of its role as the national governing body. But even USOC was careful not to imply USA Gymnastics was guilty of putting children at risk.

“We do not base these requirements on any knowledge that any individual USAG staff or board members had a role in fostering or obscuring Nassar’s actions,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun wrote in his directive to USA Gymnastics. “Our position comes from a clear sense that USAG culture needs fundamental rebuilding.”

USA Gymnastics said Friday that it would “comply with the USOC requirements.”

The board’s top three officials had resigned Jan. 21 in the midst of the Nassar hearing. And its previous president, Steve Penny, resigned last year under pressure from the USOC.

Wyland said the turnover could represent an opportunity for USA Gymnastics to remake itself and address the underlying problems that have led to the crisis. “The board is responsible for identifying the mission, the vision, the values and the goals or strategic priorities for the organization,” he said.

It’s precisely that vision that has come under attack from athletes and child advocates who say USA Gymnastics puts gold medals ahead of athlete safety.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a threetime Olympic swimming gold medalist and prominent advocate for women’s sports, is skeptical.

“My take on Scott Blackmun coming down suddenly is a move to cover his own past inaction,” she said.

Hogshead-Makar said it doesn’t matter to her whether USA Gymnastics is decertified. What matters, she said, is what steps are implemented to protect athletes.

“Decertification or getting new people on the board, I don’t think that’s how you get to a healthier sport,” she said. “It’s about giving athletes a voice. It’s about enacting basic child protection rules that every other youth organization has.”