Women's World Cup, I'll get to you. I promise. But first, another piece of disturbing news that really shouldn't be so shocking in the saga known as the Larry Nassar scandal. It turns out, the USOC did know what was going on and did nothing about it.
According to the 233-page Ropes & Gray report, then-USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny informed USOC officials Scott Blackmun and Alan Ashley of the allegations against Nassar in July 2015--more than a year before the first media reports surfaced in September 2016. They took no action. Instead, their "response" was to keep that information to themselves. They didn't even share it with the rest of the USOC's Board of Directors. And, when Penny sent them an email telling them Nassar had resigned in September 2015, they all acted like they had no idea why.
Obviously the timing motivated their inaction, at least in part. It was right in the heart of preparations for the Rio Olympics, where the U.S. continued its dominance, winning its second straight team gold medal while Simone Biles became one of the Darlings of the Games. Biles' teammate Aly Raisman and the many other Nassar survivors claimed that the USOC was "putting medals above the athletes it's sworn to protect." After reading the report, it's hard to disagree with them.
It sure looks like the USOC wanted more than anything else to make sure nothing screwed up that expected medal haul in women's gymnastics at the Rio Games. While we'll never know whether or not that was the motivation, it sure looks that way. Ashley was fired almost immediately after the report made it clear he was involved in the cover-up. Blackmun would've been also had he not already resigned in February.
The USOC's main argument throughout this entire sorry ordeal has been that they don't get involved in the day-to-day operations of the different national governing bodies. I get that. The USOC is the overseer of both the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, as well as the governing bodies for 47 different sports. The national governing bodies, by definition, are responsible for their own sport. However, the USOC is responsible for making sure those governing bodies conduct themselves within certain guidelines (one of which is the safety of their athletes). And in that area, the USOC failed. Miserably.
As crazy as it sounds, it almost would've been better if the USOC had remained blissfully unaware of what was going on at USA Gymnastics. Instead, you had two high-ranking USOC officals involved in the cover-up for more than a year.
After the Ropes & Gray report was released, a woman named Lindsay Gibbs published a piece on ThinkProgress.org entitled "The time has come for Congress to dismantle the USOC." I can see why she's angry and blames the organization. She also made some valid points about how the USOC is broken in certain areas. However, her solution isn't a viable one.
For starters, the USOC is a private organization completely independent of the government. The United States is one of the few countries in the world where the Olympic Committee doesn't receive government funding. So, Congress, in addition to having other things to do, has absolutely no authority over the USOC.
More importantly, though, decertifying the USOC would only serve to hurt the athletes. In all 47 sports. None of whom had anything to do with this. The USOC provides funding, resources, training facilities, even places to live, to thousands of athletes. What happens to them if there's no USOC? You also need to have a USOC in order to, you know, have a U.S. Olympic Team!
Did the USOC fail? Absolutely. To the same extent as USA Gymnastics? No. So the USOC doesn't bear the same level of responsibility. Especially since we don't know who at the USOC knew what beyond Scott Blackmun and Alan Ashley. In fact, Blackmun went out of his way to make sure no else knew. They're the ones who needed to be held accountable, which they were.
Will steps be taken in the future to prevent something like this from ever happening again? Of course. Especially now that the USOC is under increased scrutiny after enabling Larry Nassar through its inaction. As Susanne Lyons, a USOC board member who served as acting CEO earlier this year noted, "Transparency is important." And transparency is absolutely the key. Because the USOC's lack of action was because there was no transparency. Blackmun and Ashley effectively prevented the USOC from doing anything by staying quiet, so it's difficult to blame the entire organization for what happened.
None of the revelations in the Ropes & Gray report are particularly earth-shattering. A lot of it was simply rehashing stuff we already knew. Although, the one conclusion that was made seemed both accurate and fair. The USOC was reluctant to act because it had given the different national federations a good amount of autonomy when it came to running their individual organizations. Clearly this was the wrong decision.
There's a lot of blame to go around for Larry Nassar being allowed to do what he did and how he was able to do it for so long. The USOC deserves some of that blame. But not all of it. Not even close. The Ropes & Gray report confirms that, while also acknowledging that the organization's priorities might've been a little out of order.
Winning medals is important, yes. But it's not the only thing that matters. And those medals shouldn't come at any cost. Especially not when athletes' safety is put at risk. The USOC forgot that somewhere along the line. Now the important thing is making sure the proper steps are taken to ensure that they never forget that again.
No comments:
Post a Comment