Senator blasts USFS, USOC
“Seem to be sleepwalking through nightmare”
U.S. Figure Skating must make “immediate change” in the wake of the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s chilling assessment that the national governing body has a culture of sexual abuse that has gone “unchecked for too long,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told USA TODAY in an email Tuesday evening.
“I am appalled that no one in authority appears to understand the lessons of the horrific failures that enabled Larry Nassar’s abuse of young gymnasts for almost 30 years,” wrote Blumenthal, DConn., the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee investigating the Olympic sexual abuse scandal.
On March 4, SafeSport announced that in the course of its work on sexual misconduct allegations against national pairs champion John Coughlin — who took his own life Jan. 18, one day after he received an interim suspension from SafeSport — it discovered “a culture in figure skating that allowed grooming and abuse to go unchecked for too long.”
After a statement later that day saying in part that it “fully supports the mission of the U.S. Center for SafeSport and works in cooperation with the Center to help end abuse in sport,” USFS has gone silent. Despite repeated requests for comment and/or details about what it is doing, the organization has not issued another public word on the matter.
The void has recently been filled by the report of a medical investigator in Kansas City who wrote that Coughlin’s family said he committed suicide after being falsely accused of sexual misconduct by someone they said he was competing with for a TV commentating job, a claim for which the Coughlins have offered no substantiation.
A day later, attorney John Manly, who represents more than 200 victims in the Nassar gymnastics’ sexual abuse case, told USA TODAY that he also represents three women who were minors when Coughlin allegedly sexually abused them.
“His family can create any narrative they want to create,” Manly said of Coughlin, “but U.S. Figure Skating knows the truth, and for them to allow a story to circulate that a false accusation led to Mr. Coughlin’s decision to take his own life is despicable. It’s a mixture of denial, ignorance and, in some instances, malice.”
Blumenthal strongly criticized USFS for not using SafeSport’s strong words as a catalyst for change.
“SafeSport’s sharp remarks on the culture of abuse in USFS must prompt immediate change, not deafening silence or finger-pointing,” he said. “Rigorous oversight, increased transparency and full accountability are needed to protect the safety of young athletes, build a culture that encourages survivors to come forward, and restore the reputations of these institutions.”
Civil rights attorney Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold medalwinning swimmer and CEO of Champion Women, also criticized USFS’s silence.
“U.S. Figure Skating is sending a clear message that they don’t care about victims,” Hogshead-Makar said in a phone interview. “There is a culture of coaches molesting and ‘dating’ their athletes, and older athletes ‘dating’ younger athletes, and of course in both cases it’s about power — the power an older athlete has over a younger athlete. USFS has done nothing to address that issue. It’s very revealing how badly they don’t want to upset the current status quo of who has the power.”
Hogshead, like Blumenthal, also mentioned the lessons that should have been learned from the Nassar horrors.
“Larry Nassar gave the Olympic movement a gift — a gift of the opportunity to take something so horrible and be able to change a very damaging culture into something better. NGBs can either use that gift and make it happen or it can be as torturous and as damaging as can be imagined.
“Either USFS can have integrity and investigate its culture and come clean and apologize and make it right with the victims, or they can let John Manly do all that.”
In his email, Blumenthal also called out the U.S. Olympic Committee, saying both USFS and the USOC “still seem to be sleepwalking through the sex abuse nightmare.”
USOC spokesperson Mark Jones said in an email that the organization, which founded and funds SafeSport, is “absolutely committed to changing the culture of elite sports in the United States.
“With the help of our partners in Congress, as well as our constituents and everyone committed to providing safe training and competition environments, we continue to take the steps necessary to change our governance, personnel, policies and procedures, to make sure athletes know they are safe and supported with the resources they need to be successful, on and off the field of play.”
In a Jan. 7 email to USA TODAY, Coughlin, 33, called the allegations against him “unfounded.”
“While I wish I could speak freely about the unfounded allegations levied against me, the SafeSport rules prevent me from doing so since the case remains pending,” he wrote. “I note only that the SafeSport notice of allegation itself stated that an allegation in no way constitutes a finding by SafeSport or that there is any merit to the allegation.”
Coughlin’s assertion that he was being prevented from speaking freely about the allegations against him by SafeSport “is not true,” SafeSport spokesman Dan Hill said last month.
“The SafeSport Code and the interim measure process that was communicated to him directly, and which is on our website, makes it clear that he could provide information, evidence, speak for himself and even ask for a hearing that would have been accommodated in 72 hours by rule,” Hill said. “That hearing would have been in front of an independent arbitrator. That’s such a critical part of all of this.”