At the same time, the USOC is trying to chart its path forward and could name a new chief executive within the next two weeks. A new CEO would mark the organization’s fourth since a 2003 management and ethics scandal prompted congressional hearings and forced a restructuring of the organization.
“This is a very important time for the USOC. We’re in a period of transition and, I think, evolution,” Susanne Lyons, the USOC’s acting CEO, said Friday. “We’ve had an opportunity through the difficulties that we’ve faced in the recent sexual abuse scandals to really look in the mirror and decide how should we interact with our national governing body partners, how should we be interacting with athletes and how could we look freshly at what our mission and values are for the U.S. Olympic Committee.”
The USOC has been under fire following sex scandals across several sports, most prominently the Nassar controversy that included accusations levied by many of the nation’s most prominent gymnasts over the past two decades. Last month, at a hearing held by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) blasted the organization, saying, “The USOC is more concerned about its own reputation and about medals and money than it is about athlete safety.” And Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told Lyons, “The time to talk is over. You need to walk your talk.”
Lyons and Larry Probst, the USOC chairman, spoke with reporters Friday following the organization’s quarterly board meeting in Washington and said officials have been actively working with U.S. lawmakers, are monitoring the changes and progress made by USA Gymnastics and have made progress on creating a database that would list banned and suspended coaches across all sports, a resource that eventually would be available to parents and athletes with a click of a mouse.
“That was clearly a message that Congress raised on the floor, and it’s a very important one because it’s important that these names of individuals be much more broadly disseminated,” Lyons said. She said the USOC has solicited lists from the national governing bodies of each sport and is working with the U.S. Center for SafeSport to create a centralized database.
The USOC officials spent part of Thursday on Capitol Hill, providing updates for lawmakers and congressional staff members. They say they expect to be called back to Washington for another hearing as early as next month before a Senate Commerce subcommittee that began investigating the sexual misconduct in USA Gymnastics this year. Lyons and Probst met with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and staff members from Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), the subcommittee leaders, and also Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), both of whom have been critical of the USOC in the wake of the Nassar scandal.
“I would say the tone of the meetings was forward-looking and productive,” Lyons said. “I think they were very interested in what progress we’ve made so far and what additional plans we have.”
Lyons was named acting CEO in March following Scott Blackmun’s resignation in the wake of the sex abuse scandal that rocked USA Gymnastics. She said the board of directors received a lengthy update from Kerry Perry, the president of USA Gymnastics, at Friday’s meeting.
Perry told the board her organization has implemented more than 80 percent of the recommendations from an exhaustive independent report issued in June 2017 that scrutinized USA Gymnastics’ practices and policies and suggested significant changes. Lyons noted that the organization will seat an overhauled board July 1 and more change is afoot.
“We’ve discussed with them at length the need to have a culture that does not make it difficult for people to speak up,” Lyons said, “not a culture of retribution, not a culture in which there’s protection of coaches or others that are accused. I think there’s a strong awareness and knowledge that that’s what needs to change. How that will happen over time, I think, is a much longer term process.”
The USOC is still trying to better understand what kind of authority it should impose on its 49 national governing bodies, such as USA Gymnastics. Last week the USOC announced the formation of special commission that will examine the structure of the Olympic organizations in the United States. The commission will be chaired by Lisa Borders, the president of the WNBA.
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