Sexual Abuse Charges Put Shadow on U.S. Gymnastics Federation

/

Considering how many medals U.S.A. Gymnastics brought home from the Rio Games — an amazing 12, including Simone Biles’s three individual golds and the women’s team gold — the federation’s post-Olympics glow should be brighter than ever.

A 36-city tour starring Biles and other standouts is starting Thursday in Spokane, Wash. A rush of money is pouring into the sport. After every Summer Games, gyms typically see a bump in enrollment because kids, including my 4-year-old, watched the Olympics and want to do what their new heroes do.

It’s usually a happy time. But this year is anything but usual: Reports of sexual abuse in the sport, published before and since the Games, are reminders that gymnastics is not solid gold.

The first report, published in August by The Indianapolis Star, revealed that U.S.A. Gymnastics had kept files of complaints involving more than 50 coaches suspected of abusing athletes, yet in many cases failed to alert law enforcement of possible wrongdoing.

When is the price of Olympic Glory too high?

/

We can all probably agree that protecting children from sex offenders should be the number one priority for organizations that routinely expose children to close contact with adults. Allegations of predatory sexual behavior should always be investigated or at least reported to authorities with appropriate expertise to investigate them. All fifty states even provide immunity from suit for good faith reports of child sexual victimization. What, then, explains the behavior of one of the most well-respected and well-known such organizations in their abject failure to protect young gymnasts from becoming victims of such predators?

Her First Olympics, She Went For Herself. Now, She’s Going For Other Survivors.

/

Kayla Harrison looked up at the judge in front of her and told him that she no longer knew how to be a child.

Harrison, then just 17, had sandwiched herself between her mother and grandmother in the Ohio courtroom, refusing to glance in the direction of her former judo coach, Daniel Doyle.

She spoke slowly and surely about the 33-year-old Doyle. She detailed how he had poisoned her passion for the sport. How he had sullied every inch of her life for years. How she had became undeniably suicidal.

When she was done, she turned on her heels and left not only the courthouse, but also the state and the life she knew, saying goodbye to her home, her training gym and Doyle, the coach whom she had trusted unequivocally ― and the man who had spent the past several years sexually abusing her.

I was raped by my gymnastics coach; 'We were trained to say nothing bothered us'

/

Over the years I have been the beneficiary of this woman's fierce truth, her strength, and her kindness. She has been a friend offering comfort when needed and an inspiration fueling the fire to move this project forward. In light of the attention given to USA Gymnastics failures (and worse) she told her story to espnW. It is with respect, love and admiration that I share her story here, knowing how great an impact it can and will have on those who may feel that they are lost, or alone. -- Chris Gavagan, dir. Coached into Silence

‘Former gymnast felt compelled to share her ordeal...in the hopes that her story, when added to the voices of other young women, can help to enact change.'

Sexual predators left off list of banned USA Gymnastics coaches

/

USA Gymnastics touts a list of coaches it has banned as a key safeguard to warn gym owners and parents about dangers, including sexual predators.

And to protect young gymnasts.

But an IndyStar investigation has uncovered one example after another of coaches who were not only suspected of abuse, but actually convicted of molesting children, yet they did not show up on the banned coaches list for years — even decades — after that conviction.

A blind eye to sex abuse: How USA Gymnastics failed to report cases

/

Top executives at one of America’s most prominent Olympic organizations failed to alert authorities to many allegations of sexual abuse by coaches — relying on a policy that enabled predators to abuse gymnasts long after USA Gymnastics had received warnings.

An IndyStar investigation uncovered multiple examples of children suffering the consequences, including a Georgia case in which a coach preyed on young female athletes for seven years after USA Gymnastics dismissed the first of four warnings about him.

AAU sued for allowing Rick Butler to coach in under-18 tournament→

/

"Butler was under a lifetime ban from a different national organization, USA Volleyball, for initiating sexual relationships with three underage players in the mid-1980s. The advocates said that that by affiliating itself with Butler, the AAU, the largest youth sports group in the nation, was ignoring reforms it put in place after sexual-abuse allegations against its former president four years earlier."

Private schools, painful secrets→

/

The Globe Spotlight team has turned its investigative focus on private schools, beginning its series this weekend. "At least 67 private schools in New England have been affected by allegations of sexual abuse by employees disclosed over the past 25 years."

"The schools, many with rich histories and famed alumni, have often struggled to balance the need to respond robustly to abuse allegations with a desire to guard their reputations. Historically, few allegations were reported to law enforcement, and many schools avoid publicizing them even today. Getting past the schools’ reticence is a challenge; because these are private institutions, they are exempt from public records laws. And when the Globe sent surveys to 224 private schools on their experience with sexual misconduct allegations, only 23 — about 10 percent — chose to reply."

Australian Olympic Committee asks Brazil not to take Volkers to Rio→

/

The Australian Olympic Committee has asked the Brazil not to select former Australian Olympic swimming coach Scott Volkers for their Olympic team, amid child abuse allegations.

The Australian Olympic Committee president, John Coates, wrote to Brazilian committee president Carlos Nuzman last week to express the committee’s disappointment that Volkers was never convicted for allegedly abusing swimmers in the 1980s and 1990s.

As reported in July 2014, three of Volkers’ former swimmers, Julie Gilbert, Kylie Rogers and Simone Boyce claimed they were abused as children while training in Volkers’ swim squad in the 1980s and 1990s. A detailed account of the three swimmers’ allegations can be read here.