[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING THE OLYMPIC COMMUNITY'S ABILITY TO PROTECT ATHLETES FROM
SEXUAL ABUSE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 23, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-134
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce
energycommerce.house.gov
_______________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
33-664 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
GREG WALDEN, Oregon
Chairman
JOE BARTON, Texas FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
FRED UPTON, Michigan BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois
JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois ANNA G. ESHOO, California
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee GENE GREEN, Texas
STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado
ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania
CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey DORIS O. MATSUI, California
BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky KATHY CASTOR, Florida
PETE OLSON, Texas JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia JERRY McNERNEY, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois PETER WELCH, Vermont
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida PAUL TONKO, New York
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
BILLY LONG, Missouri DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa
LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana KURT SCHRADER, Oregon
BILL FLORES, Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III,
SUSAN W. BROOKS, Indiana Massachusetts
MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma TONY CARDENAS, California
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina RAUL RUIZ, California
CHRIS COLLINS, New York SCOTT H. PETERS, California
KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan
TIM WALBERG, Michigan
MIMI WALTERS, California
RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
______
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
GREGG HARPER, Mississippi
Chairman
H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado
Vice Chairman Ranking Member
JOE BARTON, Texas JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas KATHY CASTOR, Florida
SUSAN W. BROOKS, Indiana PAUL TONKO, New York
CHRIS COLLINS, New York YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York
TIM WALBERG, Michigan RAUL RUIZ, California
MIMI WALTERS, California SCOTT H. PETERS, California
RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey (ex
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia officio)
GREG WALDEN, Oregon (ex officio)
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hon. Gregg Harper, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Mississippi, opening statement................................. 1
Prepared statement........................................... 3
Hon. Diana DeGette, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Colorado, opening statement................................. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey, opening statement......................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 9
Hon. Greg Walden, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Oregon, opening statement...................................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Witnesses
Susanne Lyons, Acting Chief Executive Officer, United States
Olympic Committee.............................................. 14
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Answers to submitted questions............................... 144
Kerry Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer, USA
Gymnastics..................................................... 23
Prepared statement........................................... 25
Answers to submitted questions............................... 148
Timothy Hinchey III, President and Chief Executive Officer, USA
Swimming....................................................... 30
Prepared statement........................................... 32
Answers to submitted questions............................... 157
Stephen McNally, Executive Director, USA Taekwondo............... 35
Prepared statement........................................... 37
Answers to submitted questions............................... 165
Jamie Davis, Chief Executive Officer, USA Volleyball............. 62
Prepared statement........................................... 65
Answers to submitted questions............................... 171
Shellie Pfohl, President and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Center
for SafeSport.................................................. 88
Prepared statement........................................... 90
Answers to submitted questions............................... 179
Submitted Material
Subcommittee memorandum.......................................... 132
Subcommittee exhibit binder \1\
----------
\1\ The exhibit binder has been retained in committee files and
also is available at https://docs.house.gov/Committee/
Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=
108356.
EXAMINING THE OLYMPIC COMMUNITY'S ABILITY TO PROTECT ATHLETES FROM
SEXUAL ABUSE
----------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2018
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,
Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Gregg Harper
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Harper, Griffith, Burgess,
Brooks, Collins, Barton, Walberg, Walters, Costello, Carter,
Walden (ex officio), DeGette, Schakowsky, Castor, Tonko,
Clarke, Ruiz, Peters, and Pallone (ex officio).
Also present: Representatives Bilirakis and Dingell.
Staff present: Jennifer Barblan, Chief Counsel, Oversight
and Investigations; Mike Bloomquist, Staff Director; Kelly
Collins, Legislative Clerk, Energy/Environment; Adam Fromm,
Director of Outreach and Coalitions; Ali Fulling, Legislative
Clerk, Oversight and Investigations, Digital Commerce and
Consumer Protection; Brighton Haslett, Counsel, Oversight and
Investigations; Brittany Havens, Professional Staff Member,
Oversight and Investigations; Elena Hernandez, Press Secretary;
Zach Hunter, Communications Director; Austin Stonebraker, Press
Assistant; Natalie Turner, Counsel, Oversight and
Investigations; Hamlin Wade, Special Advisor for External
Affairs; Julie Babayan, Minority Counsel; Christina Calce,
Minority Counsel; Jeff Carroll, Minority Staff Director; Zach
Kahan, Minority Outreach and Members Services Coordinator;
Chris Knauer, Minority Oversight Staff Director; Miles
Lichtman, Minority Policy Analyst; Perry Lusk, Minority GAO
Detailee; Tim Robinson, Minority Chief Counsel; Andrew Souvall,
Minority Director of Communications, Member Services, and
Outreach; and C.J. Young, Minority Press Secretary.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREGG HARPER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
Mr. Harper. The hearing will come to order.
Today, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is
holding a hearing entitled ``Examining the Olympic Community's
Ability to Protect Athletes from Sexual Abuse.''
We are here because recent events have highlighted a very
troubling and concerning pattern of sexual misconduct within
the U.S. Olympic community. There's been a systemic failure in
the system to protect athletes, including in how allegations of
sexual misconduct have been handled--or should I say not
handled--by the national governing bodies, the groups that run
individual sports, and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
And let me be clear: One case of sexual abuse is one case
too many, and it will take a Herculean effort to regain the
trust of prospective athletes, their families, and the American
people. The USOC and NGBs play a role in keeping millions of
American athletes safe from harm.
The vast majority of the athletes involved in NGBs will
never compete in Olympics. They are on teams affiliated with an
NGB or play at an NGB-sponsored event. This can include little
league teams, local tennis tournaments, or gymnastics
competitions. They are, in many instances, children, but they
still fall within the parameters of organized sport.
So when we talk about athletes' safety, we aren't just
talking about elite athletes representing their country at the
highest level of their competition, we are also talking about
our friends, our neighbors, and, yes, our children.
This is why athlete safety must be the top priority of the
USOC and NGBs, and why they should have robust policies and
procedures in place that reflect this priority.
More importantly, these policies and procedures must be
followed, otherwise they aren't worth the paper that they're
written on, and the culture must be such that our athletes feel
safe and protected.
Sadly, we've seen what can happen when athlete safety is
not a priority. Too often it seems that the USOC and NGBs
haven't acted until they are publicly pressured to do so. When
you have survivors saying that they were asked to stay silent,
felt that they weren't heard, and didn't feel safe, there's
something horribly wrong with the system.
Sexual abuse is a problem that our society must confront.
According to the CDC's statistics on sexual violence, one in
three women and one in six men experience sexual violence
involving physical contact during their lifetimes.
While such focus has been on USA Gymnastics team doctor
Larry Nassar, gymnastics is not the only NGB that has had its
challenges. Recent public reports also include the Lopez
brothers in Taekwondo, Rick Butler in Volleyball, and the
multiple accusations that have come from the swimming
community, as well as reports in many other NGBs not before us
today.
Historically, each NGB and the USOC were responsible for
directly handling any complaints, allegations, or reports of
sexual abuse within their respective sport. However, policies,
procedures, and bylaws weren't consistent across all NGBs, and
it's unclear whether there was adequate oversight to ensure
that the applicable policies and procedures were even followed.
There have been some recent changes to improve how
allegations of sexual misconduct are handled in the Olympic
community. The USOC has used working groups to make
recommendations for promoting and protecting athletes.
Through these working groups, new policies and procedures
were developed and the U.S. Center for SafeSport was created by
the USOC and launched in March of 2017. Now all NGBs and the
USOC are required to report all complaints or allegations that
involve sexual misconduct to the Center for investigation.
Over the course of this investigation, the committee has
spoken with many survivors, and their experiences have informed
and shaped our work. These conversations and the many thousands
of pages of documents provided to the committee by survivors
and whistleblowers helped shed light on the pervasive problem
of sexual abuse in organized sport and prompted the committee
to request documents from all 48 national governing bodies and
the USOC.
We greatly appreciate all the assistance that the survivors
have provided and our hearts do go out to them. Our job now is
to do everything we can to protect our athletes, many of whom
are children.
This hearing will serve as an opportunity to review whether
the USOC and NGBs have adequate policies and procedures in
place to protect athletes from sexual abuse. It is of the
utmost importance to hold them accountable for their past
failures and ensure that safety is their top priority going
forward. It is time to change the culture, once and for all.
I'd like to welcome all of our witnesses, and I do thank
you for being here today. And I know this isn't an easy topic,
but it is one that we need to address to keep our Nation's
athletes safe. And we do look forward to hearing your
testimony.
I would also like to thank the ranking member of the
subcommittee, Ms. DeGette, and other minority members and staff
for their bipartisan hard work and assistance that we've seen
during this investigation.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Harper follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Gregg Harper
Today, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is
holding a hearing entitled, ``Examining the Olympic Community's
Ability to Protect Athletes from Sexual Abuse.'' We are here
because recent events have highlighted a very troubling and
concerning pattern of sexual misconduct within the U.S. Olympic
Community. There have been breakdowns and failures in the
system to protect athletes, including in how allegations of
sexual misconduct have been handled by the National Governing
Bodies-the groups that run individual sports-and the U.S.
Olympic Committee.
The USOC and NGBs play a role in keeping millions of
American athletes safe from harm. The vast majority of the
athletes involved in NGBs will never compete in the Olympics.
They're on teams affiliated with an NGB, or play in NGB-
sponsored events. This can include little league teams, local
tennis tournaments or gymnastics competitions. They are, in
many instances, children. But they still fall within the
parameters of ``organized sport.'' So when we talk about
athlete safety, we aren't just talking about elite athletes
representing their country at the highest levels of their
competition. We are also talking about our friends, our
neighbors, our kids.
This is why athlete safety must be the top priority of the
USOC and NGBs, and why they should have robust policies and
procedures in place that reflect this priority. More
importantly, these policies and procedures must be followed-
otherwise they aren't worth the paper they are written on-and
the culture must be such that our athletes feel safe and
protected. Sadly, we've seen what can happen when athlete
safety is not a priority.
Too often it seems that the USOC and NGBs haven't acted
until they are publicly pressured to do so. When you have
survivors saying that they were asked to stay silent, felt like
they weren't heard, and didn't feel safe--there is something
wrong with the system.
Sexual abuse is a problem our society must confront.
According to the CDC's statistics on sexual violence, one in
three women and one in six men experience sexual violence
involving physical contact during their lifetimes. While much
focus has been on USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar,
gymnastics is not the only NGB that has had its challenges.
Recent public reports also include the Lopez brothers in
Taekwondo, Rick Butler in Volleyball, and the multiple
accusations that have come from the Swimming community, as well
as reports in many other NGBs not before us today.
Historically, each NGB and the USOC were responsible for
directly handling any complaints, allegations, or reports of
sexual abuse within their respective sport. However, policies,
procedures, and bylaws weren't consistent across all NGBs and
it's unclear whether there was adequate oversight to ensure
that the applicable policies and procedures were followed.
There have been some recent changes to improve how
allegations of sexual misconduct are handled in the Olympic
community. The USOC has used working groups to make
recommendations for promoting and protecting athletes. Through
these working groups, new policies and procedures were
developed, and the U.S. Center for SafeSport (Center) was
created by the USOC and launched in March 2017. Now all NGBs
and the USOC are required to report all complaints or
allegations that involve sexual misconduct to the Center for
investigation.
Over the course of this investigation, the committee has
spoken with many survivors, and their experiences have informed
and shaped our work. These conversations-and the thousands of
pages of documents provided to the committee by survivors and
whistleblowers-helped shed light on the pervasive problem of
sexual abuse in organized sport, and prompted the committee to
request documents from all 48 national governing bodies and the
USOC.
We greatly appreciate all the assistance that the survivors
have provided. Our job, now, is to do everything we can to
protect our athletes. This hearing will serve as an opportunity
to review whether the USOC and NGBs have adequate policies and
procedures in place to protect athletes from sexual abuse.
These organizations are directly responsible for the safety of
athletes. It is of the utmost importance to hold them
accountable for their past failings and ensure that safety is
their top priority going forward. It is time to change the
culture, once and for all.
I'd like to welcome all of our witnesses and thank you for
being here today. I know that this isn't an easy topic, but
it's one that we need to address to keep our Nation's athletes
safe. We look forward to hearing your testimony.
I would also like to thank the ranking member of
subcommittee, Ms. DeGette, and other minority members and staff
for their hard work and assistance on this bipartisan
investigation.
Mr. Harper. And I'll now recognize the ranking member of
the subcommittee, Ms. DeGette.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DIANA DEGETTE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO
Ms. DeGette. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
There were warning signs about sexual misconduct in amateur
sports for decades. And yet, the systems that were supposed to
protect our athletes failed. That's why we're here today.
As the chairman noted, these systems failed to stop Larry
Nassar from harming more than 250 individuals. They failed to
stop a taekwondo coach from abusing three athletes over 7 years
for which he was later convicted of multiple felonies. And they
failed to stop a swim coach from abusing more than a dozen
athletes over 30 years.
That coach was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison,
but even a lifetime in jail cannot erase the damage that he has
done.
These cases, unfortunately, are not anomalies. Far too many
athletes, from far too many sports, have come forward stating
that they had been traumatized by the very people they trusted
to help them achieve their dreams.
Today we are here because we need to know that the Olympic
sport community has learned from these survivors and is using
that knowledge to develop and implement a new system run by the
U.S. Center for SafeSport.
We need to be the convinced that this new Center has a
robust system to investigate and stop bad actors so that
situations like this never happen again. And we need to make
sure that the Center has adequate funding going forward into
the future.
I understand that the U.S. Olympic Committee and the
national governing bodies are engaging in their own internal
investigations into what went wrong. I hope everyone today is
prepared to explain exactly what they're doing to investigate
and learn from past failures so that they can build a system
that works.
I also hope the Center for SafeSport, which is located
right in the heart of my congressional district, can help us
explain how the past failures inform its work. Because the
Center doesn't just investigate misconduct allegations,
although that's an important part of their job, it also has the
extraordinarily important task of developing anti-abuse
policies and providing education and outreach to promote safe
environments for athletes.
I hope the Center will be able to make real, verifiable
progress in creating a national culture of safety in sport.
But I've got to say that I have concerns about whether
SafeSport has sufficient resources and whether it truly has the
independence it needs from the organizations it oversees.
I spoke yesterday with SafeSport, and I want to make sure
that we have formal outside assessments of SafeSport's needs
and operations. And I want to make sure that the Olympic
community and the sporting community also are committed to
giving them the resources that they need.
In case you didn't know this, the Olympic Committee is not
operating on a shoestring. Its annual revenue is hundreds of
millions of dollars. I hope we will hear today that if
SafeSport needs more money, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the
other governing bodies are prepared to increase substantially
the support that they provide to this much-needed watchdog.
I also want to know how the Center for SafeSport and
national governing bodies will ensure that the independent
systems that they've designed is working as intended and its
meeting its goals of protecting the people that it is supposed
to.
For example, will there be ongoing and periodic performance
audits to ensure that the complaints are properly investigated,
the SafeSport's educational component is being implemented, and
that its standards are being adopted by the many sports
organizations under its jurisdiction?
Ongoing audits are going to be critical to evaluating this
new system, and I want to know that this will happen and that
we have appropriate resources to do that work.
I also want to understand that the U.S. Olympic Committee
is prepared to enforce consistent anti-abuse policies and
procedures across all governing bodies.
For example, some governing bodies post public lists of
banned athletes and coaches, while others do not. Some
governing bodies require SafeSport training for all affiliated
individuals, and others only require it for their members.
I know that various affiliates are concerned about this and
are trying to develop consistent policies. This is going to be
critical and the leadership of the U.S. Olympic Committee will
be critical.
Look, we're not here today to tear down the sporting world.
American performances at the Olympics are a source of national
pride, and sports in general benefit children and adults at all
levels. But it does no good for our athletes to stand on a
podium if they've been harmed by the people and organizations
that help get them there.
I hope that we're on the road to real change. Today, I want
to hear from every witness how we truly are and that the steps
that we are taken to date are not just window dressing, because
every athlete, no matter what sport they play, no matter what
level they're playing it, deserves to complete in a heavy and a
safe environment.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. DeGette follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Diana DeGette
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We are here today because there have been warning signs
about sexual misconduct in sports for decades. And yet, the
systems that were supposed to protect athletes failed.
They failed to stop Larry Nassar from harming more than 250
individuals. They failed to stop a taekwondo coach from abusing
three athletes over 7 years, a crime for which he eventually
was convicted of multiple felonies. And they failed to stop a
swim coach from abusing more than a dozen athletes over 30
years. That coach was eventually sentenced to 40 years in
prison, but even a lifetime in jail would not erase the damage
he has done.
These cases are not anomalies. Far too many athletes from
far too many sports have come forward stating that they have
been harmed by the very people they trusted to help them
achieve their dreams.
Today, I need to know that the Olympic sport community has
learned from these survivors, and is using this knowledge to
design and implement the new system run by the U.S. Center for
SafeSport. I need to be convinced that this new Center has a
robust system to investigate and stop bad actors so that
situations like these never happen again.
I understand that the U.S. Olympic Committee and the
national governing bodies are engaging in their own internal
investigations into what went wrong. I hope they are all
prepared to explain exactly what they are doing to investigate
and learn from past failures so that they can build a system
that works.
I also hope that the Center for SafeSport is prepared to
explain how these past failures inform its work. This Center
does not just investigate misconduct allegations. It also has
the extraordinarily important tasks of developing anti-abuse
policies and providing education and outreach to promote safe
environments for athletes.
I hope that this Center will make real, verifiable progress
in creating a culture of safety in sport.
But I must say that I still have considerable concerns
about whether SafeSport has sufficient tools and resources and
operates with enough independence from the organizations it
oversees. I want to know that there are formal ongoing
assessments of SafeSport's needs and operations to ensure that
it can handle its workload effectively.
The Olympic Committee is not operating on a shoestring. Its
annual revenue is in the hundreds of millions. I hope we will
hear today that if SafeSport needs more money, the U.S. Olympic
Committee and governing bodies are prepared to increase
substantially the support they provide to the Center.
Similarly, I would like to know how the Center for
SafeSport and national governing bodies will ensure that the
independent system they have designed is working as intended
and meeting the needs of those it is charged with protecting.
For example, will there be ongoing and periodic performance
audits to ensure that complaints are properly investigated,
that SafeSport's educational component is being implemented,
and that its standards are being adopted by the many sports
organizations under its jurisdiction? Ongoing audits are
critical to evaluating this new system, and I want to know that
they will happen and that there are appropriate resources
already set aside to make them happen.
I also want to understand that the U.S. Olympic Committee
is prepared to enforce consistent anti-abuse policies and
procedures across all governing bodies.
For example, some governing bodies post public lists of
banned athletes and coaches while others do not. Some governing
bodies require SafeSport training for all affiliated
individuals, and others only require it for members.
There must be consistency in these policies, and the U.S.
Olympic Committee must require the national governing bodies to
adopt all changes needed.
Let me conclude by saying that we are not here today to
tear down sport. American performances at the Olympics are a
source of national pride, and sports benefit children and
adults at all levels. But it does us no good for our athletes
to stand on a podium if those same athletes have been harmed by
the individuals and organizations that helped them get there.
I hope that we are on the road to real change. Today, I
want every witness here to convince me that we are, and that
the steps taken to date are not just ``window dressing.''
Because every athlete, no matter what sport they play or at
what level, deserves to compete in a healthy and safe
environment.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The Chair will now recognize the ranking
member, Mr. Pallone, for an opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Today leaders of the Olympic community will tell us that
they failed the people they were supposed to protect. We must
examine those failures and understand whether the organizations
before us today have learned from them.
Reports of sexual abuse in organized sports have been in
the press for decades, years before the world known of Larry
Nassar's horrific crimes. It's shameful that many organizations
share the blame for failing these survivors.
The problem of sexual abuse in organized sports is bigger
than Larry Nassar and it's bigger than any single organization.
Today we'll hear from the national governing bodies of several
sports, and each one has to address sexual abuse of their
athletes.
Unfortunately, we have seen that these cases are not rare.
Too many athletes have come forward with accounts of abuse.
These athletes come from different sports, but often we
hear the same themes when we listen to them. Frequently their
abusers held positions of power, sometimes controlling whether
an athlete could train or compete, and frequently their abusers
had powerful friends in their respective organizations.
And up until recently, each sports' governing body
addressed sexual abuse allegations internally, and that system
failed to protect athletes.
There was a great need for an independent organization, and
last March the U.S. Center for SafeSport opened its doors with
a mission to prevent abuse and foster a culture of safety in
sports.
Now sport governing bodies can and must report allegations
of sexual misconduct to the Center for SafeSport. And the
Center continues to receive new cases, as well as cases from
athletes who had reported sexual misconduct in the past.
On top of that, it offers education and training for sports
governing bodies and athletes, and already the organization has
provided training to more than 300,000 and has received more
than 500 reports.
And clearly all of this takes resources, and we need to
make sure that the Center for SafeSport has the resources and
personnel it needs to do its work.
I also want to hear what the U.S. Olympic Committee is
doing to support the Center for SafeSport. Special language in
the Tax Code designates the U.S. Olympic Committee as a tax-
exempt, nonprofit organization, but few nonprofit organizations
can report revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars as
the U.S. Olympic Committee did in its most recent tax filing.
The U.S. Center for SafeSport gets its funding from diverse
sources, including fundraising and government grants. It also
gets a portion of its funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee.
So I hope we'll hear today that the U.S. Olympic Committee
and the sports governing bodies are prepared to provide
consistent and continuing support to the Center for SafeSport.
It is critical for the Center for SafeSport to have a permanent
and dedicated source of funding, and these sports organizations
should make sure that that happens.
I also hope we will hear that the U.S. Olympic Committee
will use its position of leadership and authority to require
sports governing bodies to adopt reforms as needed to reduce
the risk of harm to athletes.
For example, questions such as, who is subject to
background checks, how these checks are done, and whether lists
of individuals banned from the sport are made public, are all
important safety standards that should be applied consistently
across all sports.
I also want to hear that the Center for SafeSport, the
Olympic Committee, and all governing bodies are committed to
completing ongoing formal assessments and evaluations to
determine what is working and what needs additional improvement
or additional resources.
Before we leave today, I want to hear from all of our
witnesses about the reforms they've implemented to keep
athletes safe. I want you to convince me that you're thoroughly
examining how you failed athletes in the past and that those
lessons are shaping the reforms you're putting in place.
And I need to be convinced that you are building a system
with the right people, structure, and resources to protect
athletes under your leadership. I also want to hear that there
will be zero tolerance for the kinds of abuses that brought us
here today.
With that, Mr. Chairman, unless someone wants my minute, I
will yield back.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr.
Today leaders of the Olympic community will tell us that
they failed the people they were supposed to protect. We must
examine those failures, and understand whether the
organizations before us today have learned from them.
Reports of sexual abuse in organized sports have been in
the press for decades--years before the world learned of Larry
Nassar's horrific crimes. It is shameful that many
organizations share the blame for failing these survivors.
The problem of sexual abuse in organized sports is bigger
than Larry Nassar, and it is bigger than any single
organization. Today we will hear from the National Governing
Bodies of several sports. Each one has had to address sexual
abuse of their athletes.
Unfortunately, we have seen that these cases are not rare.
Too many athletes have come forward with accounts of abuse.
These athletes come from different sports, but often we hear
the same themes when we listen to them. Frequently their
abusers held positions of power--sometimes controlling whether
an athlete could train or compete. And frequently their abusers
had powerful friends in their respective organizations.
Up until recently, each sports' governing body addressed
sexual abuse allegations internally.
That system failed to protect athletes.
There was a great need for an independent organization.
Last March, the U.S. Center for SafeSport opened its doors,
with a mission to prevent abuse and foster a culture of safety
in sports. Now sports governing bodies can--and must--report
allegations of sexual misconduct to the Center for SafeSport.
The Center continues to receive new cases, as well as cases
from athletes who had reported sexual misconduct in the past.
On top of that, it offers education and training for sports
governing bodies and athletes. Already, the organization has
provided training to more than 300,000 people, and has received
more than 500 reports.
Clearly, all of this takes resources, and we need to make
sure the Center for SafeSport has the resources and personnel
it needs to do its work.
I also want to hear what the U.S. Olympic Committee is
doing to support the Center for SafeSport. Special language in
the Tax Code designates the U.S. Olympic Committee a tax-exempt
nonprofit organization. But few nonprofit organizations can
report revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as the
U.S. Olympic Committee did in its most recent tax filing.
The U.S. Center for SafeSport gets its funding from diverse
sources, including fundraising and Government grants. It also
gets a portion of its funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee.
I hope we will hear today that the U.S. Olympic Committee
and the sports' governing bodies are prepared to provide
consistent and continuing support to the Center for SafeSport.
It is critical for the Center for SafeSport to have a permanent
and dedicated source of funding, and these sports'
organizations should make sure that happens.
I also hope we will hear that the U.S. Olympic Committee
will use its position of leadership and authority to require
sports governing bodies to adopt reforms as needed to reduce
the risk of harm to athletes.
For example, questions such as who is subject to background
checks, how those checks are done, and whether lists of
individuals banned from a sport are made public are all
important safety standards that should be applied consistently
across all sports.
I also want to hear that the Center for SafeSport, the
Olympic Committee, and all governing bodies are committed to
completing ongoing formal assessments and evaluations to
determine what is working, and what needs additional
improvement or additional resources.
Before we leave today, I want to hear from all of our
witnesses about the reforms they have implemented to keep
athletes safe. I want you to convince me that you are
thoroughly examining how you failed athletes in the past, and
that those lessons are shaping the reforms you are putting in
place.
I need to be convinced that you are building a system--with
the right people, structure, and resources--to protect athletes
under your leadership. I also want to hear that there will be
zero tolerance for the kinds of abuses that brought us here
today.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the chairman of the full
committee, Mr. Walden, for an opening.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREG WALDEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON
Mr. Walden. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for leading
this investigation and holding this very important hearing
today.
Every one of us in this room has an Olympic memory. For a
select few, it is actually competing in the Olympic Games on
behalf of our great country. For the vast majority of us, it is
watching our athletes compete.
The Olympics inspire, they unite us, as we cheer them on to
victory with great pride. Our children watch the Olympics with
their own dream that one day they, too, may compete at the most
elite level and represent our country.
But the system of organized sport headed by the United
States Olympic Committee and 48 national governing bodies, or
NGBs, is much bigger than the Olympics and includes millions of
athletes who don't necessarily compete at the highest levels.
The four NGBs before us today--Gymnastics, Taekwondo,
Volleyball and Swimming--collectively represent some 979,000
members. USA Swimming includes everyone from Michael Phelps--
who, by the way, testified before this committee last year--to
children competing in a local recreational league.
And the same is true not for the three other NGBs at the
table today, but for all the other NGBs in existence.
In pursuit of their dreams, athletes of all levels have
frequent contact with coaches and doctors and trainers and
volunteers, who are given responsibility beyond simply enabling
these young athletes to achieve excellence in their chosen
sport. We entrust them with athletes' safety and their well-
being.
These individuals often hold positions of great power and
authority over the athletes. Not only can they control an
athlete's training schedule or medical treatment, those very
individuals often have a direct say in that athlete's career,
such as deciding who competes in an upcoming event.
As has become abundantly clear, too many authority figures
have abused their power and influenced and harmed the very
athletes that were trusted to them. Athletes have very little
power, by comparison, and too many have been failed by the
system that purports to protect them.
Much attention has been paid to the case of Larry Nassar,
in part because of the sickening number of athletes he abused.
To date, hundreds of women and girls have come forward as
victims of Nassar's abuse that spanned two decades.
But the sad truth is, that abuse in the Olympic community
extends well beyond Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics. The U.S.
Center for SafeSport, established in March of 2017, has already
received 488 reports regarding sexual abuse involving 35 of the
48 total NGBs.
The committee has spoken with numerous survivors in the
course of this investigation. And we thank all of them for
their assistance in this work, and we know that their stories
are not easy to tell.
There were far too many similarities in what we heard.
Individuals in positions of power not only abused their trust,
but physically abused their persons. And when survivors sought
help, far too many felt the system protected not them, but
their abusers. They felt silenced.
In the eyes of many survivors, the culture of medals and
money won out over athlete safety and protection.
Changes have been made in the Olympic community over the
past decade, in particular within the last year, that show how
things are moving in the right direction. However, many
questions remain about whether the community has come far
enough and moved fast enough. More must be done to ensure that
athlete safety is the top priority of the USOC and the NGBs.
Today this committee will examine how to protect young
athletes now and in the future. Among our concerns are:
Whether the culture within the Olympic community fosters a
safe environment for victims to come forward;
Whether the policies and procedures that have been put in
place over the past several years are enforced in a way that
promotes transparency and accountability;
Whether the Center for SafeSport is the most effective
organization it can be;
And, whether the USOC has exercised its full authorities
over the Olympic community when it comes to creating and
enforcing policies that protect our athletes from sexual abuse
and misconduct.
So I look forward to hearing about what Congress can do
further to improve and strengthen the system so we're actually
protecting athletes at all levels, and all ages, in all sports.
Thank you for being here as part of this discussion.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Walden follows:]
Prepared statement of Hon. Greg Walden
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for leading this investigation and
holding this important hearing today.
Every one us in this room has an Olympic memory. For a
select few, it is competing in the Olympic games on behalf of
our Nation. For the vast majority of us, it is watching our
athletes compete. The Olympics inspire and unite us as we cheer
on our athletes with great pride. Our children watch the
Olympics with the dream that one day they will get to compete
at the most elite level and represent our country.
But the system of ``organized sport'' headed by the USOC
and 48 National Governing Bodies, or NGBs, is much bigger than
the Olympics, and includes millions of athletes who don't
compete at the highest levels of organized sport. The four NGBs
before us today--Gymnastics, Taekwondo, Volleyball, and
Swimming--collectively represent nearly 979,000 members. USA
Swimming includes everyone from Michael Phelps to children
competing in a local recreational league. And the same is true
not just for the three other NGBs at the table today, but for
all of the other NGBs in existence.
In pursuit of their dreams, athletes of all levels have
frequent contact with coaches, doctors, trainers, and
volunteers who are given responsibility beyond simply enabling
these young athletes to achieve excellence in their chosen
sport; we entrust them with athletes' safety and well-being.
These individuals often hold positions of great power and
authority over the athletes. Not only can they control an
athlete's training schedule or medical treatment, those very
individuals often have a direct say in that athlete's career,
such as deciding who competes in an upcoming event. As has
become abundantly clear, too many authority figures have abused
their power and influence and harmed the very athletes that
trusted them. Athletes have very little power by comparison,
and too many athletes have been failed by the system that
purports to protect them.
Much attention has been paid to the case of Larry Nassar,
in part because of the stunning number of athletes abused by
Nassar. To date, hundreds of women and girls have come forward
as victims of Nassar's abuse that spanned two decades. But the
sad truth is that abuse in the Olympic community extends well
beyond Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics. The U.S. Center for
SafeSport, established in March of 2017, has already received
488 reports regarding sexual abuse, involving 35 of the 48
total NGBs.
The committee has spoken with numerous survivors in the
course of this investigation, and we thank all of them for
their assistance in this work. We know that their stories are
not easy to tell.
There were far too many similarities in what we heard.
Individuals in positions of power not only abused their trust,
but physically abused their persons. And when survivors sought
help, far too many felt that the system protected not them, but
their abusers. They felt silenced. In the eyes of many
survivors, the culture of ``medals and money'' won out over
athlete safety and protection.
Changes have been made in the Olympic community over the
past decade, in particular in 2017, that show that the way
these cases are handled is changing for the better. However,
many questions remain about whether the community has come far
enough and moved fast enough. More must be done to ensure that
athlete safety is the top priority of the USOC and NGBs.
Today this committee will examine the progress that has
been made. Among our concerns are whether the culture within
the Olympic community fosters a safe environment for victims to
come forward; whether the policies and procedures that have
been put in place over the past several years are enforced in a
way that promotes transparency and accountability; whether the
Center for SafeSport is the most effective organization it can
be; and whether the USOC has exercised its full authorities
over the Olympic community when it comes to creating and
enforcing policies that protect our athletes from sexual abuse
and misconduct. I also look forward to hearing about what the
Congress can further do to help improve and strengthen the
systems that protect athletes of all levels, and all ages.
I thank our witnesses for being here today, and being part
of this important discussion. I yield back.
Mr. Walden. With that, I yield the balance of my time to
the gentlelady from Indiana, Mrs. Brooks.
Mrs. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank
you for holding this hearing today.
Abuse of all kinds has come under close scrutiny across the
country this past year. Sexual abuse in particular has shown
itself to be far more pervasive and insidious that many would
have imagined.
Thanks to the diligent work of my hometown newspaper, the
Indianapolis Star, we've learned about the revelations about
Dr.Nassar and his systemic abuse of U.S. gymnasts, but also
more about our Nation's Olympic athletes and what they've had
to endure for so many years in their Olympic quest, and this is
unacceptable.
I'm proud that I led, along with a colleague, Lois
Frankelfrom Florida. We saw the passage of the bill Protecting
Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization
Act of 2017.
Our President signed into law in February of 2018 this
bipartisan, game-changing bill that prioritizes the safety and
well-being of our Nation's athletes, because we must ensure
that our youth are safety when they go to the gym, when they
take the ice, when they go out onto the field to practice their
sport.
Young athletes look to their coaches, their instructors,
their trainers as role models. And our bill, now law, works to
ensure that our athletic national governing bodies will support
a culture within their organizations to foster safe and healthy
relationships between coaches, instructors, trainers, and
athletes, through their policies and procedures that will
prevent, detect, and report allegations of abuse to law
enforcement in an appropriate and timely manner.
And I'm proud that this was signed into law, because our
past, our present, and our future athletes, who are dedicating
their lives to perfect their sport, the dream of the Olympic
stage, need to be protected. They need to be safe and free from
sexual abuse.
And I thank you all for being here today. I look forward to
your testimony.
Mr. Harper. I ask unanimous consent that the Members'
written opening statements be made part of the record. Without
objection, they will be entered into the record.
Additionally, I ask unanimous consent that Energy and
Commerce members not on the Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations be permitted to participate in today's hearing.
Without objection, so ordered.
I would now like to introduce our witnesses for today's
hearing.
First, we have Ms. Susanne Lyons, acting chief executive
officer at the United States Olympic Committee.
Next is Ms. Kerry Perry, president and chief executive
officer at USA Gymnastics.
Mr. Tim Hinchey, president and chief executive officer at
USA Swimming.
Mr. Steve McNally, executive director at USA Taekwondo.
Then we have Mr. Jamie Davis, chief executive officer at
USA Volleyball.
And finally, Ms. Shellie Pfohl, president and chief
executive officer at the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
You're aware that the committee is holding an investigative
hearing, and when doing so has had the practice of taking
testimony under oath. Do you have any objection to testifying
under oath?
Let the record reflect that all witnesses have responded
``no.''
The Chair then advises you that under the rules of the
House and the rules of the committee, you're entitled to be
accompanied by counsel. Do any of you desire to be accompanied
by counsel during your testimony today?
Let the record reflect that all witnesses have responded
no.
In that case, if you would please rise. I ask you to raise
your right hand, and I will swear you in.
Do you swear that the testimony you're about to give is the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. You may be seated.
You're now under oath and subject to the penalties set
forth in Title 18, Section 1001 of the United States Code.
You may now give a 5-minute summary of your written
statement.
And we will begin with you, Ms. Lyons. You have a light
system that's there that should turn yellow when you have a
minute left and red when your 5 minutes are up.
So, Ms. Lyons, welcome.
STATEMENTS OF SUSANNE LYONS, ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE; KERRY PERRY, PRESIDENT AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, USA GYMNASTICS; TIMOTHY HINCHEY III,
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, USA SWIMMING; STEPHEN
MCNALLY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, USA TAEKWONDO; JAMIE DAVIS, CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, USA VOLLEYBALL; AND SHELLIE PFOHL, PRESIDENT
AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, U.S. CENTER FOR SAFESPORT
STATEMENT OF SUSANNE LYONS
Ms. Lyons. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Harper,
Ranking Member DeGette, and members of the subcommittee.
Three months ago, I agreed to serve as the acting CEO of
the U.S. Olympic Committee because I felt an obligation to help
address the significant and important issues that bring us here
today.
Like you, I was deeply saddened and also angry to hear the
statements of the girls and women who were the victims of Larry
Nassar. I heard the powerful and compelling stories of victims
and survivors, including those that had sought help from people
in the Olympic community. They found the system unresponsive,
needlessly complex, and fraught with risks to their Olympic
dreams. This is appalling and unacceptable.
The Olympic community failed the people it was supposed to
protect. And I would like to apologize once again to those
individuals and to their families, some of whom I believe are
with us today. I know we can do better, and we will do better.
When I accepted this role, I announced a series of
initiatives to address issues of abuse and other structural
weaknesses. We committed to providing funding for gymnastics
and athletes from other sports affected by abuse. We committed
to doubling our funding for the Center for SafeSport.
We announced a governance review. And we committed to
strengthen the voices of the athletes, both young and adult, in
our community. And importantly, we reiterated our commitment to
reform USA Gymnastics.
Last year, we demanded the resignation of the USA
Gymnastics CEO, and this year we required a complete turnover
of the USA Gymnastics board, along with several additional
reforms.
Mr. Chairman, we are already making progress, but we have a
long way to go. I would like to update the subcommittee on our
efforts.
First, we are redoubling our efforts with the Center for
SafeSport. After only 1 year it is already clear that the
Center is serving an essential role in protecting athletes.
The Center has experienced a significant increase in the
number of reports of abuse. And although any report is
disheartening, that's the reason we need the Center. It
provides a safe and independent path for athletes to report
these concerns.
We doubled our grant to the Center to $3.1 million this
year to enable it to hire more investigators and to resolve
cases more quickly. We are also working with the Center to
identify potential improvements in their policies and
procedures.
Second, we are listening to and enhancing the voices of
athletes in the community through athlete surveys and through a
series of athlete working sessions.
Third, we announced a governance review to inform our
engagement with the national governing bodies and athletes and
our oversight of the Olympic movement in the United States. We
need to make sure that we are organized and empowered to take
appropriate steps to protect athletes.
Rebuilding gymnastics is the fourth category. We committed
to a $1.3 million grant to the National Gymnastics Foundation
entirely for athlete assistance programs, medical support, and
counseling.
We are in nearly constant contact with CEO Kerry Perry, the
Gymnastics interim board, and others at Gymnastics. Recently,
we supported Gymnastics as they established that interim board,
and we supported them as they made governance reforms to
implement best practices.
Even as we move ahead, a fifth category of effort will
develop in the coming months when we receive the report of the
independent investigation of Nassar's abuse.
The investigation covers both the Olympic Committee and USA
Gymnastics, as well as any other relevant information on abuse
that the investigation reveals. We will make that report public
in its complete and unabridged form, and we will take whatever
actions are appropriate based on the report's findings.
We have made significant progress in strengthening
protections for athletes over the last few years, but our
collective efforts must not cease. We must support the victims
and survivors and honor those who have stood up against abuse.
We promise to lead the Olympic community to bring real and
lasting change.
I would be happy to answer your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lyons follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Ms. Lyons.
The Chair will now recognize Ms. Perry for 5 minutes for
the purposes of your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF KERRY PERRY
Ms. Perry. Chairman Harper, Ranking Member DeGette, members
of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, thank you for
inviting me to testify today at this very important hearing.
For more than 50 years, USA Gymnastics has served as the
national governing body for the sport in the United States. We
have many responsibilities to the gymnastics community. None
are more important than the safety and well-being of our
athletes.
Like all of you, I was appalled and sickened by the
despicable crimes of Larry Nassar. We must do better.
I came on board at USA Gymnastics in December from outside
the sport and the Olympic movement. My singular goal and the
reason I accepted this mission is to create a supportive and
empowering culture that helps our athletes achieve their
gymnastics dreams in an empowering culture.
First, I want to apologize to all who were harmed by the
horrific acts of Larry Nassar. I was in the courtroom to listen
to the incredibly courageous women explain in vivid and painful
detail the damage he did to their lives. Their voices will not
be forgotten.
I commit to you that I will keep their words and
experiences at the core of every decision I make, every day, as
the leader of this organization. Their stories have broken my
heart, but they've also strengthened my resolve.
Let there be no mistake, those days are over. USA
Gymnastics is on a new path, with new leadership and a
commitment to ensure this never happens again.
Since December 2017, we have embarked on a mission to
implement a culture that puts athletes first. To that end, we
are working hard to regain the trust and confidence of our
athletes, their families, and all who are a part of our
gymnastics community.
In the past 5 months, here are just a few of the bold
decisions to put USA Gymnastics on a new course:
We closed the National Training Center at the Karolyi
Ranch.
We made difficult personnel decisions to ensure that USA
Gymnastics has a fresh start.
We fully support the U.S. Olympic Committee and
congressional investigations that we hope will shed light on
how Nassar was able to commit these horrific crimes.
We fully support Federal legislation, now a law, that will
help safeguard amateur athletes.
We expanded our SafeSport department to include five new
positions, four of which will live in the regions that they
cover throughout the United States, to better support, train,
educate, and serve our members.
We created an Athlete Task Force where our athletes will
help shape our organization's future and its strategic and
operating decisions.
We continue to implement the Deborah Daniels
recommendations stemming from an independent evaluation of USA
Gymnastics policies.
We are strongly enforcing the USA Gymnastics SafeSport
Policy that requires mandatory reporting to find specific types
of misconduct, set standards for grooming behavior, and
establish greater accountability.
We made reporting of abuse easier with a dedicated toll-
free number and online reporting.
We are amending our bylaws to support the cultural
commitment to athlete safety and to help enforce SafeSport
policies.
We are educating and training our staff, our board, and our
members on the new SafeSport Policy. I am pleased to report
that our staff and our board are 100 percent SafeSport
compliant.
Beginning in 2018, all professional and club members must
be SafeSport certified as a condition of membership.
We are participating in mediation in order to resolve the
athletes' claims fairly and expeditiously.
And we created an Athlete Assistance Fund, in cooperation
with the National Gymnastics Foundation, to provide survivors
of abuse with the needed financial resources for counseling and
medical services.
These necessary changes are not just amendments to our
policies, they are part of a cultural shift that reflects our
commitment to prioritize the safety of our athletes and
members. We will hold our organization to the highest standards
of care in order to become the standard bearer of change.
I am testifying today on behalf of the new USA Gymnastics,
because right now there's a parent driving their child to
gymnastics class. I want that parent to know that we are doing
everything we can every day to protect your child.
Athlete safety must be at the forefront of everything we
do. We have taken decisive action to grow into a more athlete-
centered organization, committed to helping our athletes
fulfill their dreams in a safe and supportive environment.
Out of respect for those who have stood on the podium under
the United States flag, and out of devotion to the aspiring
young athletes who set foot in gyms every day, we must and we
will emerge stronger and safer.
Thank you. And I'm happy to answer your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Perry follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Ms. Perry.
The Chair will now recognize Mr. Hinchey for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY HINCHEY III
Mr. Hinchey. Chairman Harper, Ranking Member DeGette, and
the members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity
to testify today.
In 2010, USA Swimming faced its own reality that children
and swimmers were being sexually abused in sport.
USA Swimming apologizes, acknowledges and deeply regrets
the abuse suffered by children, athletes, and other
participants in swimming programs.
Participation in sport should offer physical, social, and
emotional benefits, but for some it has resulted in abuse and
trauma that will negatively impact the rest of their lives.
That is inexcusable. And like those who sit before me today, I
am deeply committed to providing a safe and healthy environment
for children to grow, play, and compete.
While recognizing that much work remains to be done, let me
describe the steps USA Swimming has taken.
In 2010, USA Swimming established a comprehensive abuse
prevention and response program called SafeSport.
USA Swimming hired an athlete protection officer, the first
position of its kind in the Olympic movement, and established a
national SafeSport Committee.
Over the past 8 years, the SafeSport program has evolved.
Over 90 individuals have been banned from membership for sexual
misconduct, and it is published on USA Swimming's ban list.
Criminal background checks have been enhanced. Currently,
we conduct monthly recurring reports on our 50,000 nonathlete
members, resulting in approximately 600,000 annual background
checks of adults who have access to children.
We have over 80 individuals dedicated to championing
SafeSport athletes and efforts at the local, regional, and
national level.
Educational initiatives have also increased. Over 10,000
individuals have received SafeSport training in in-person
workshops or conferences.
Finally, a victims assistance fund called SwimAssist has
been established.
However, I regret we continue to receive reports of child
sexual abuse in swimming. The organization can, should, and
will do more, and I will lead that effort.
I'm the father of six, three girls and three boys, ages 30
to 11, and I'm a swimmer. Upon assuming the role of president
of USA Swimming in July of 2017, I recognized SafeSport's
significance to the organization. And the opportunity to work
with the subcommittee in this investigation has only
intensified my commitment to make protecting children and
athletes USA Swimming's absolute top priority.
To that end, we have a number of new initiatives under way
and we are vetting even more. The SafeSport-recognized club
program will enhance athlete protection efforts at all levels,
especially the local level. The ``Training the Trainers''
program will increase the number of advocates spreading the
SafeSport message throughout our organization.
I have and will continue to meet with and engage with
survivors of abuse to ensure that we hear their voices and we
learn from their experiences.
In addition to its own efforts, USA Swimming will continue
to be a responsible leader, steward, and member of the Olympic
sport community.
USA Swimming embraces its obligations under the Protecting
Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization
Act and already has policies in place that require reporting,
prohibit retaliation, and limit one-on-one interactions between
adults and children.
Further, USA Swimming supports the U.S. Center for
SafeSport and is fully committed to its success.
While we cannot change the past, we will learn from it and
we will do better. Our commitment to preventing child sexual
abuse and providing a safe and healthy environment for our
athletes is constant and long-lasting.
Thank you, and I look forward to answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hinchey follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Mr. Hinchey.
The Chair now recognizes Mr. McNally for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN MCNALLY
Mr. McNally. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member DeGette, and
members of the subcommittee, for just under 8 months I have
served as executive director of USA Taekwondo.
I thank the committee for the opportunity to express my
personal commitment, and the commitment of USA Taekwondo under
my leadership, to ensuring that athletes are protected from
sexual misconduct within the U.S. Olympic community, as well as
all those participating in sports outside the Olympic movement.
For the purposes of background, USA Taekwondo was formed in
2004 to assume responsibility as the national governing body
for Taekwondo after the dissolution of the previous governing
body, the United States Taekwondo Union.
Very few records exist from the USTU era, and no continuity
exists between USTU and USAT with regard to the organization's
board of directors, leadership, or senior staff.
From the information and documents that I have accumulated
since becoming executive director in September of last year, I
have concluded that the organization's response to complaints
prior to 2015 varied as administrations, boards, and ethics
committees changed personnel.
USA Taekwondo has always sought to balance its obligation
to protect members from misconduct, while also abiding by the
requirements to protecting the rights of the accused.
In 2015, following allegations by an athlete of sexual
assault at the hands of USAT coaches, USA Taekwondo immediately
retained Denver attorney Donald Alperstein from a firm
specializing in amateur sports law since 1985 to serve as an
independent outside counsel.
From this point forward, USA Taekwondo has relied on its
outside counsel to investigate all of USAT history in an effort
to uncover any previously unreported incidents of sexual
assault and misconduct, and to pursue sanctions against
defendants.
Outside counsel operated without any limitation on its
budget, with no control by USA Taekwondo as to whom he should
or should not pursue, and with only rudimentary intermittent
reporting requirements to USA Taekwondo.
At the direction of outside counsel, in conjunction with
the support of USA Taekwondo leadership, a number of measures
were implemented immediately following its engagement to
address pending allegations of misconduct, discover additional
claims, and execute remedies to ensure the safety and security
of USA Taekwondo athletes.
The investigation was conducted by outside counsel hired at
the direction it USA Taekwondo and succeeded in exposing
evidence of misconduct within USA Taekwondo and USTU as early
as 1994.
However, as one might imagine, the pursuit of sanctions
against defendants proved to be somewhat elusive, with many
victims hesitant to reopen old wounds and reluctant to discuss
matters about which their families, friends, or employers were
unaware. Some victims could not be located, and some were
unavailable for a variety of other reasons, including
incarceration.
Several victims eventually disclosed information to outside
counsel but only on the condition that they could do so
confidentially and would not be compelled to testify without
further discussion. And to this day, outside counsel has raised
some concern over sharing information he received only through
providing these promises.
The committee has expressed an interest in Steven and Jean
Lopez. To summarize, a lifetime ban has been imposed on Jean
Lopez, and Steven Lopez is under a temporary suspension pending
disposition of his case by SafeSport.
I do want to emphasize USA Taekwondo submitted evidence
gathered concerning these allegations to the FBI, the
Sugarland, Texas, Police Department, the Fort Bend County,
Texas, Sheriff's Office, and the Colorado Springs Police
Department.
With the creation of SafeSport in March 2017, all cases
still pending in outside counsel's investigation were
transferred.
Personally, it is my strong commitment to be part of the
solution. And under my leadership, USA Taekwondo has already
taken additional efforts to become more proactive in the area
of athlete protection.
These include the immediate referral of any and all sexual
abuse allegations to SafeSport, and the referral of any
allegations involving a potential crime to relevant law
enforcement agencies.
We immediately suspend an individual upon receipt of a
direct allegation if we believe there is a threat to athletes
currently, or clear evidence of an allegation being true.
We now ensure leadership on any official trip contains both
genders. We require SafeSport training now for all referees.
We've introduced mandatory background checks and SafeSport
training for vendors even who are working at our events.
And we have just engaged a group called Fighting Spirit,
which provides education on sexual misconduct. All minor
national teams athletes will be required to take this training
in the future.
Finally, next month USA Taekwondo will launch the
#notinmysport education campaign, with the goal of informing
participants throughout the sport as to what is acceptable
behavior and what constitutes a violation, and also to empower
our athletes to stand up and make their statement on social
media channels.
There is no doubt more work to be done. The entire Olympic
family must ensure that funding and resources remain available
to SafeSport.
Thank you, and I'm ready to answer your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. McNally follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Mr. McNally.
The Chair will now recognize Mr. Davis for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JAMIE DAVIS
Mr. Davis. Chairman Harper, Ranking Member DeGette, members
of the subcommittee, I want to thank you for affording me an
opportunity to speak with you today and to share with you USA
Volleyball's commitment to the safety our athletes.
I joined USA Volleyball as its CEO in January of 2017, and
in that timeframe I have been proud to lead an organization
that respects all of our participants and places the highest
value on personal safety before medal counts.
USA Volleyball actively encourages our members to report
any and all incidents regarding sexual misconduct or abuse, and
we provide them a safe environment to express their concerns.
We report and investigate any allegation brought forward, and
we have the obligation to take appropriate action, if
necessary. This is the core of our values.
USA Volleyball has long championed a culture of protection
of all participants. We were one of the first NGBs to implement
a robust background screening policy. Beginning in the 2004-
2005 volleyball season, USA Volleyball starting working with
nationally respected background screening company SSCI and
implemented a policy requiring individuals who participate with
junior volleyball clubs to submit to a background screening.
Recognizing a need to do more to protect athletes of all
ages, USA Volleyball formed a commission in 2010 to address
participant safety, named the Special Commission on Athlete
Safeguards. This commission set out to review the current
trends and best practices in athlete safety and produce
recommendations for USA Volleyball to implement.
The recommendations of the commission were extensive, but
included: one, developing a procedure for reporting sexual
harassment or abuse allegations;two, formulating written
policies that define inappropriate behavior; and three,
providing continual education on these kinds of topics to USA
Volleyball participants and parents.
The commission's work paved the way for USA Volleyball to
establish early SafeSport policies and procedures before it was
even called SafeSport. We are proud to have been a very early
endorser of a SafeSport program and supporter of the U.S.
Center for SafeSport.
As I hope is evident, USA Volleyball has long considered
the safety of our athletes to be a top priority. This priority
was not suddenly created in response to recent headlines or as
a result of mounting public scrutiny, but done so because many
years ago we recognized protecting our athletes and members as
the right thing to do.
I would like to address the case of Mr. Rick Butler, who
has made headlines in the volleyball world. Mr. Butler is a
well-known private volleyball club owner and coach in the
Chicagoland suburb of Aurora, Illinois.
His club, Sports Performance Volleyball, is not owned or
operated by USA Volleyball; however, its athletes and coaches
are required to be members of USA Volleyball if they wish to
participate in USA Volleyball-sanctioned events.
In 1995, allegations of sexual misconduct were brought
forth by three women that took place while they were members
and played at his privately owned club. The women claimed that
Mr. Butler had a sexual relationship with them in the 1980s
while he was their coach and while they were under the age of
18.
As a result of those allegations, in 1995 USA Volleyball
found that Mr. Butler had violated our rules, and as a result,
they voted to ban him for life.
After 5 years passed and upon Mr. Butler's request for
reinstatement, USA Volleyball voted to conditionally reinstate
Mr. Butler's membership in the year 2000 under the limitation
of Mr. Butler's inability to ever coach junior girls in USA
Volleyball-sanctioned events.
To be clear, regardless of all the headlines surrounding
this matter, and since the year 1995, Mr. Butler has been
banned from coaching junior girls under USA Volleyball, a
condition of his lifetime ban that never changed.
Furthermore, these allegations are a result of Mr. Butler's
activities as a club director and coach for his privately owned
club and not a part of USA Volleyball national team programs.
In late 2016, several brave women came forward to USA
Volleyball to provide new allegations against Mr. Butler for
sexual misconduct dating back to the 1980s. Based on these
women's claims, USA Volleyball filed new charges against Mr.
Butler. And in January of 2018, USA Volleyball's Ethics and
Eligibility Committee held a hearing regarding these
allegations.
Mr. Butler was once again found to have violated our rules,
and as a result, Mr. Butler was banned from total participation
in USA Volleyball for life without the possibility of
reinstatement.
Our efforts were recently applauded by the CEO of Champion
Women, Ms. Nancy Hogshead-Makar, one of the Nation's most vocal
advocates for women's rights in sports. In her letter addressed
to me on April 2, 2018, Ms. Hogshead-Makar wrote in part,
quote:
``We are reaching out today to thank you for banning Rick
Butler from volleyball for his sexual predation of young girls.
It took a lot to be the first organization to ban him, and we
are grateful for your strong commitment to the victims and
safety of all athletes. We are optimistic that these efforts
will make a difference the next time any sports organization
has to make a call to investigate, hold a hearing, or ban a
member, if necessary,'' end quote.
I do not pretend that we have been perfect, nor do I ignore
the fact that there have been some offenders in our midst. I
encourage anyone listening to me today that if you have
information of any misconduct within our organization, past or
present, please contact our offices or the U.S. Center for
SafeSport. We will listen, and we will act.
We want to create the most safest, most enjoyable
atmosphere for volleyball players of all ages and look forward
to a day when there is no sexual abuse or misconduct in
volleyball. We will do everything we can to make this a
reality, and we look forward to working with others to do so.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Davis follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Mr. Davis.
The Chair will now recognize Ms. Pfohl, the president and
CEO of the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
STATEMENT OF SHELLIE PFOHL
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you, Chairman Harper, Ranking Member
DeGette, and members of the committee.
It is my privilege to serve as president and CEO of the
United States Center for SafeSport, an independent, nonprofit
organization in Denver, Colorado.
The Center is dedicated to making athlete well-being a
centerpiece of our Nation's sports culture. Let me say that
again. Our Center is dedicated to making athlete well-being the
centerpiece of our Nation's sports culture through abuse
prevention, education, and accountability.
Far too many of our Nation's athletes have suffered abuse
at the hands of perpetrators who take advantage of a sports
environment where athletes form bonds with their coaches,
trusted adults, and teammates. As you said, Mr. Chairman, if
one athlete is abused, it's one too many.
I know from experience that sport at its core builds
character, promotes healthy lifestyles, and develops self-
confidence. We are here today because we never want to lose
sight of those values.
Our March 3, 2017, we opened our doors as an independent
entity and started taking reports on day one. Today our
operations include a 9-member board and 14 full-time employees.
Thanks to the support from Congress and the leadership of
Representative Brooks, we were recognized in the Protecting
Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization
Act, which became law in February.
Among the many safeguards it put in place, the law requires
that anyone working in amateur sports must immediately report
the suspected abuse of minors to law enforcement and prohibits
retaliation against those who choose to come forward.
Adults who have regular contact with minors in Olympic and
Paralympic sports must now complete mandatory SafeSport
training, adhere to best practices, policies, and procedures,
like the SafeSport code.
The code specifically outlines and prohibits forms of abuse
and misconduct and defines the processes surrounding reporting.
Reports can be made through the Center's Web site or by calling
our office.
I want to stress that anyone who is listening, reports can
be made anonymously and there is no statute of limitation.
The safety and well-being of those we serve is our
priority. Our qualified investigators are trained to handle
each report with care through the industry best practice of
trauma-informed response.
Before I go into the numbers, I want to underscore that we
never lose sight of the fact that behind these numbers are
people, men, women, boys, and girls, dealing with the lingering
effects of abuse.
In our first year, we responded to more than 500 reports
and inquiries. This year, we expect that number to more than
double.
Let me put it into perspective for you. This time last
year, we were getting 20 to 30 reports per month. Now we're
getting 20 to 30 reports per week.
So far, we have issued 169 sanctions, including sanctioning
142 individuals with permanent ineligibility. That's no small
detail, 142 individuals are permanently unable to coach or
participate in Olympic and Paralympic sports. These adults are
listed in our online searchable database, which is available to
anyone who wants to use it.
The volume of reports speaks to the critical need of the
Center. We know how hard it is for victims to come forward. Our
goal is to continue building trust while establishing a culture
where everyone feels safe, supported, and empowered to report,
with the ultimate objective to end all forms of abuse.
In addition to investigating reports, we also provide
outreach, education, and training, not only for athletes and
coaches, but for parents and youth sport organizations at all
levels. In our first year, almost 400,000 people completed our
online training and hundreds more have expressed interest in
accessing it.
This past year was a step in the right direction, and I
know we have a lot more work to do.
In closing, sport has the power to be an incredibly
positive influence on participants, communities, and our
Nation. I thank you for helping us to prioritize our important
mission to champion respect and end abuse.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Pfohl follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Ms. Pfohl.
The Chair will now begin the questioning by the Members.
And we are going to ask unanimous consent that the contents of
the document binder be introduced into the record and to
authorize staff to make any appropriate redactions.
Without objection, the documents will be entered into the
record with any redactions that staff determines are
appropriate.\1\
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\1\ The information has been retained in committee files and also
is available at https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/
ByEvent.aspx?EventID=108356.
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Mr. Harper. Ms. Lyons, if I may ask you some questions.
Does the USOC see itself as responsible for overseeing and
enforcing policies that keep athletes safe?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I think that we do view ourselves as
responsible. And I think if we have had a failing, it is that
we have not adequately exercised our authority in that manner.
Mr. Harper. My question was, is that your responsibility?
And you've answered yes.
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I believe it is.
Mr. Harper. Is it a top priority for the USOC?
Ms. Lyons. It is a top priority.
Mr. Harper. And I'm glad you said that and view it that
way, but we're all worried that it hasn't always been the case.
If you could look at the document binder that's before you
there and turn to Tab 1.
In Tab 1 you're going to see a Washington Post article
dated February the 23rd of 2018. Do you see that?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I do.
Mr. Harper. The article references a deposition in a 2016
lawsuit in which a Taekwondo athlete alleged that she was raped
by her coach at the USOC's Olympic Training Center.
USOC's lawyer, Gary Johansen, was asked whether protecting
athletes from abuse was a top priority for the USOC. His
response: ``The USOC does not have athletes.''
Does the USOC believe that it has the authority to require
NGBs to implement policies and procedures?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I believe the act does grant us that
authority. And I think a change we need to make is for us to
exercise that authority more thoroughly.
Mr. Harper. The USOC provides NGBs with governance support,
and in some instances the USOC has required changes to an NGB's
bylaws related to the act or the USOC's bylaws. Is that
correct?
Ms. Lyons. That's correct.
Mr. Harper. However, each NGB has their own governance
structure and applicable bylaws and policies. Is that true?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, that is true.
Mr. Harper. As I mentioned in my opening statement, you can
have all of the policies and procedures in the world, but if
they're not properly implemented, followed, or enforced,
they're not doing much good.
The USOC engaged Baker Tilly to conduct audits of the USOC
in all of the NGBs and high performance management
organizations to assess their compliance with SafeSport
policies and procedures. The audit reports for each
organization were issued last year in October 2017. Some of the
organizations were found to be in compliance with the SafeSport
policies and procedures and didn't have any observations, but
many were found to have deficiencies.
Do you know how many audits found deficiencies?
Ms. Lyons. Yes. In fact at that time the majority had
deficiencies. However, I am pleased to say that virtually all
are now in compliance.
Mr. Harper. Would it be fair to say that 43 NGBs had
deficiencies?
Ms. Lyons. That's correct.
Mr. Harper. The audit of the USOC itself also found a
number of deficiencies for USOC. If you could turn to Tab 2 in
your notebook there.
In Tab 2, you'll see that audit. And these included a lack
of guidance and specific requirements on anonymous or
confidential reporting by survivors, training, and background
checks, to name a few.
Unlike the NGBs with deficiencies, however, there doesn't
appear to have been a follow-up audit of the USOC. Do you plan
to conduct a follow-up audit?
Ms. Lyons. Let me just have a moment to review this.
Mr. Harper. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Lyons. Yes. Having looked at this, I think to any
extent where we have deficiencies it is required that we should
do exactly the same thing that we expect of the NGBs, we should
have a follow-up audit and ensure that we are, ourselves, in
compliance.
Mr. Harper. What ability does the USOC have to enforce
policies and procedures?
Ms. Lyons. I think the act grants us a great deal of
authority.
I think one of the areas that we most need to look at--and
this is why we have introduced a governance review--is that we
have two main levers, we can take away funding or we can
decertify. Our main activity is to decide if an NGB is
certified.
Mr. Harper. So you can decertify, you can put them on
probation or you can withhold funds.
Ms. Lyons. Correct.
Mr. Harper. Is that correct?
Ms. Lyons. That is correct.
Mr. Harper. So you have a number of tools at your disposal.
What circumstances would it take to warrant that the USOC
take such action? What do you have to see? What would you have
to see in behavior by an NGB to decertify or to withhold funds?
What are you looking for?
Ms. Lyons. We look for a number of things. They include the
ability to manage effectively; and administratively we look for
them to have appropriate financial controls.
And in the recent years we have also added a very
incredibly important requirement that they meet all of the
SafeSport standards, that they have just implemented all the
new language that is in the new legislation.
So we have increasingly added to our list of compliance
that they must have these SafeSport protections, and we audit
against that on a regular basis now.
Mr. Harper. My time has expired.
The Chair will now recognize the ranking member of the
subcommittee, Ms. DeGette, for 5 minutes.
Ms. DeGette. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I would like
to follow up on your questioning.
Ms. Lyons, I think that you testified there's roughly 49 of
these NGBs. And as we heard today, just from a representative
sample, every group has their own governing principles. Is that
correct?
Ms. Lyons. That is correct.
Ms. DeGette. And that's probably why it is really important
that we have an organization like the Center for SafeSport so
they can have an overriding protocol for complaints of this
nature. Isn't that correct?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I totally agree.
Ms. DeGette. And that's, in fact, one reason why the Center
for SafeSport was founded in March of 2017, just a little over
a year ago. Is that right?
Ms. Lyons. That's correct.
Ms. DeGette. Now, I want to turn to you, Ms. Pfohl, because
you testified that last year the Center for SafeSport had about
20 to 30 complaints per month. This year it is 20 to 30 per
week. And you have got about 800 reports pending right now. Is
that right?
Ms. Pfohl. No, ma'am. Thank you for the question. We have
had over 800 total reports----
Ms. DeGette. I see.
Ms. Pfohl [continuing]. To come in since we opened our
doors.
Ms. DeGette. In the roughly 14 months, you have had 800
reports.
Ms. Pfohl. Correct, correct.
Ms. DeGette. Now, in a May 17 submission to this committee
SafeSport reported that the U.S. Olympic Committee provided
$2.7 million in 2017 and is going to provide roughly $3.1
million for 2018 and $3.1 million for 2019, the same amount for
2019. Is that right?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. DeGette. Now, getting back to your testimony, I think
you had said, ever since the #MeToo movement--you told me this
yesterday--ever since the #MeToo movement, the Center for
SafeSport has seen the number of complaints skyrocket. Is that
right?
Ms. Pfohl. Definitely, between the #MeToo movement and the
Nassar trial.
Ms. DeGette. And the Nassar trial.
Ms. Pfohl. We really saw an uptick.
Ms. DeGette. It has really gone up this year. Is that
right?
Ms. Pfohl. Uh-huh.
Ms. DeGette. And that's probably a good thing, because
people realize they can report and what you're doing. Is that
right?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. DeGette. So you get money from the U.S. Olympic
Committee for your funding. You also get money from the
different NGBs according to a schedule for how much they're
giving. Is that right?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes. Each national governing body gives us an
annual fee based on their size.
Ms. DeGette. Now, what is your budget right now?
Ms. Pfohl. Right now it is a little over $4.6 million.
Ms. DeGette. And how many investigators do you have on
staff.
Ms. Pfohl. Internally we have five full-time investigators
plus three additional support staff. We have seven external
contracted investigators, as well.
Ms. DeGette. So you have roughly 13.
Ms. Pfohl. Twelve or 13.
Ms. DeGette. Twelve or 13 people. Do you believe that's
sufficient with the increase in complaints to thoroughly
investigate every complaint?
Ms. Pfohl. No.
Ms. DeGette. Mr. Hinchey, I want to talk to you for a
minute, because I also spoke with you yesterday. Do you believe
the Center for SafeSport has sufficient funding to be able to
investigate all of these complaints that they're getting?
Mr. Hinchey. I'm not familiar with their entire budget, but
I think based on our experience right now they can certainly
use more resources.
Ms. DeGette. Now, over at your organization you give
$50,000 a year to Center for SafeSport, is that right, as part
of your----
Mr. Hinchey. Just under that, about 43,000.
Ms. DeGette. And you would be willing to give more. Is that
correct?
Mr. Hinchey. Absolutely. I think as one of the larger NGBs,
and based on who we are, if we can provide more resources we
absolutely will.
Ms. DeGette. Now, Ms. Lyons, the U.S. Olympic Committee,
according to the most recent tax filing, the organization's
revenues are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Is that
correct, Ms. Lyons?
Ms. Lyons. That's correct.
Ms. DeGette. And so I want to ask you, are you committed to
giving the full funding that SafeSport needs to be able to
conduct thoroughly all the investigations of the many
complaints they're receiving?
Ms. Lyons. Yes. And our board has said if they express
additional need, we will certainly revisit that.
Ms. DeGette. And, Ms. Pfohl, are you engaging outside
evaluators to determine what kind of a budget that you really
need to do a thorough investigation?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, we are.
Ms. DeGette. And when do you expect that information?
Ms. Pfohl. I would hope that we would, in the next 6 weeks,
we would be able to come back and provide an estimate based on
what we're seeing now.
Ms. DeGette. OK. Let me just say this committee is fully
supportive of what your organization was established to do, and
it appears that the entire community, athletic community is.
And so whatever money you need to actually do your work,
please let us know and we will work with you and the USOC and
all of the different organizations to make sure you get that.
Because that's really going to be critical to resolving all of
the issues relating to these victims, and that's what we want
to do.
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. DeGette. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harper. The Chair now recognizes Chairman Walden, the
chair of the full Committee on Energy and Commerce, for 5
minutes.
Mr. Walden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Lyons, there appears to be a history of the USOC
knowing about allegations of sexual abuse and doing nothing.
Over the years, the USOC has taken a number of positions on
how much authority it has to protect athletes. USOC officials
have said they, quote, ``don't have athletes,'' close quote,
that the Ted Stevens Act doesn't you the authority to mandate
that the NGBs take action on this issue.
As recently as 2016, USOC officials said in a deposition
that they don't have the authority to, quote, ``do anything,''
close quote, if the USOC was concerned about the safety of
athletes.
So I want to ask you a simple question: What precisely is
the authority of the USOC when it comes to protecting athletes?
Ms. Lyons. I think the act gives us a much broader
authority than we have exercised in the past.
Mr. Walden. So one of the concerns that the committee has
heard repeatedly from survivors is that the USOC is more
concerned about its own reputation, about medals and money,
than it is about athlete safety.
If you would please turn to Tab 3 in the binder, the
exhibit binder. As you're finding that, I'll just mention this
is a USOC policy document on athlete safety issued just last
month. Tab 3.
If you'll turn to page 7 of Tab 3, there is a list of six
items that a review panel of USOC officials will consider,
quote/unquote, in deciding a complaint and imposing a sanction.
Can you explain why one of the factors to consider is, and
I quote, ``the effect on the USOC's reputation''?
Ms. Lyons. I have to admit to not having seen that before.
And I have to say it does not belong on that list.
Mr. Walden. OK. I appreciate that candor.
This was not the only document produced to the committee
that referenced the effect on the USOC's reputation. There's
also similar language in the USOC SafeSport policy from June of
2017--that would be on Tab 4--and in the USOC's training access
protocol from 2011--Tab 5--when the USOC and NGBs would have
still been responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse.
So I would encourage you to review those and act
appropriately.
Ms. Lyons. Thank you. We will.
Mr. Walden. Ms. Pfohl, I'm heartened by the progress that's
been made since the creation of SafeSport last year, but I want
to make sure that the reputation of the USOC or an NGB does not
play a role in SafeSport decisions.
According to SafeSport policies a factor, quote/unquote,
relevant to determining an appropriate sanction is the, and I
quote, ``real or perceived impact of the incident on the
reporting party, NGBs, or USOC.'' Tab 30, page 9.
Again, why is the impact on the NGB or the USOC a factor in
considering whether a SafeSport violation has occurred and
whether to issue a sanction? That would be Tab 30 on page 9.
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you, sir. Thank you for the question.
I believe what this is referencing is that if conduct is
such that it reflects poorly on the sport and those that
support the sport, then that can be used in terms of making an
appropriate sanction. Meaning that conduct, poor conduct----
Mr. Walden. I understand.
Ms. Pfohl [continuing]. And its poor reflection on the
sport matters.
Mr. Walden. I would just say that, you know, we do a lot of
legislating around here, and words matter. And what you think
they are and what I think they are, 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years from
now somebody may go, ``Oh, well, if we do that, that might
reflect poorly on the organization if word gets out.''
And I would just caution all of you that, I understand what
you may think it is, but you better be darn well clear that the
patient's safety comes first. And I think that's where you're
headed. I respect that. But it clearly was not where we were in
the past.
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, absolutely. We will absolutely look at that
verbiage. And make no mistake, we work for athletes. That's who
we work for.
Mr. Walden. Thank you.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from Florida,
Ms. Castor, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Castor. Thank you, Chairman Harper.
I want to focus on whether the culture of winning above all
else increases the risk of athlete abuse. But first let me say,
it is horrendous that it has taken a scandal of such epic
proportions where hundreds of girls in U.S. Gymnastics were
abused by a doctor to get to this point.
Ms. Lyons, according to The Washington Post, a U.S. Olympic
Committee attorney was deposed in 2016. When asked about the
Olympic Committee's priorities, he stated, ``The USOC has a lot
of priorities. Chief among them is sending athletes to the
Olympic, Pan American, and Paralympic Games, and doing well at
those games.''
When asked whether protecting athletes was also a priority,
this lawyer reportedly said, ``The USOC doesn't have
athletes,'' implying that the Olympic Committee is not
responsible for athlete welfare.
You're familiar with these remarks, correct?
Ms. Lyons. I am familiar with them.
Ms. Castor. So I firmly believe, as many do, that the
Olympic Committee has a responsibility to protect the health
and welfare of athletes.
In February you released a statement outlining seven steps
you intend to take to ensure a safe sports environment,
including an effort to, quote, ``implement a culture change at
USA Gymnastics.''
What do you mean by this culture change? You have given us
some specifics, but tell us really what you see, what does the
future hold.
Ms. Lyons. Well, first I would like to say that, you know,
in terms of performance, we believe that performance and safety
go hand-in-hand. We don't believe that athletes can perform at
their best unless they are in a safe, respectful, and
supportive training environment and competitive environment.
In terms of what we need to change in the culture--and I
think it is across the entire movement, not just within
gymnastics, and Ms. Perry is doing a lot of work within her own
organization--we have to, first of all, put that safety much
more front and center.
Ms. Castor. Because it seems like in the past it has been a
culture of protect the coach and not protect the athlete. For
example, why hasn't it been the policy and will it be the
policy of actually referring these cases and complaints to
local law enforcement when they happen?
Ms. Lyons. Well, it is now the law that those types of
cases must be remanded to local law enforcement, and anyone who
does not do so is violating Federal law. It is critically
important that----
Ms. Castor. How have you communicated that to all of the
organizations?
Ms. Lyons. All of the organizations have received that.
They have all made the changes within their own bylaws and
other materials. They now are all required to be under the
jurisdiction of the Center and also to report to law
enforcement.
Ms. Castor. Ms. Pfohl, this culture change is a key part of
SafeSport's mission. You outlined specific steps that SafeSport
is taking to make this happen. It is clearly needed.
Much of what we're hearing today sounds good, but I'm
worried that we do not have a way to know whether things will
actually get better.
One of the concerns is whether or not SafeSport is actually
independent. What can you tell us to assure us that you're
acting independently and moving away from the culture of
protect the coach, protect the organization, to a protect the
athlete.
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you for the question, Representative.
We have an independent, nine-person board of directors that
need meet a high standard of independence. They have subject
matter expertise. They come from an ethics compliance world,
some of them, and the like. So they hold us to a high standard.
I can tell you that our investigators are the same. When we
take on a case in a report we do that in an independent,
confidential, and professional manner, and we act accordingly.
Ms. Castor. So one of the issues in the workplace, but I'm
sure it applies here, is retaliation, that you'll have an
athlete that will come forward with a complaint but the
organization or the coach then may hear about it some way or
there might be rumors and then they don't get to compete.
What is being done to address retaliation and make sure
that the athletes are protected from it?
Ms. Pfohl. Again, thank you for the question.
Retaliation is a violation of the SafeSport code and is
subject to sanction. And the new law, the Protecting Young
Victims and Safe Sport Authorization Act, puts some teeth into
that and provides further protections for those coming forward,
both reporting parties or the victims themselves, the
survivors, as well as witnesses.
Ms. Castor. And then what do you say about referrals to
local law enforcement? What are you saying when a parent or an
athlete comes forward with a very serious complaint? Are you
referring those to local law enforcement immediately?
Ms. Pfohl. Absolutely. We are mandatory reporters, so we
immediately call law enforcement if they haven't already been
called. We are double checking to make sure that they are
called.
And of course, we let the law enforcement process play out.
We work collaboratively at all levels, if you will, with law
enforcement, from the FBI to local law enforcement. And then we
look at whether a breach of the SafeSport code took place.
Ms. Castor. Thank you very much.
You all set the standard for youth sports and development
across the country, and we have high expectations for you to
implement this culture change. And we're going to get back to
you and keep an eye, as well.
And I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Harper. The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentleman from Texas, the
chairman emeritus, Mr. Barton, 5 minutes.
Mr. Barton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank each of you for participating voluntarily
in this hearing. We have lots of hearings, but not many are as
sensitive and important as this one.
Normally I just ask questions extemporaneously, but because
of the gravity of the situation I'm actually going to basically
read from some prepared questions because it is so important.
And I'm going to basically ask the same question toe three of
you.
The first question is to Susanne Lyons. The committee has
asked all 48 NGBs to provide, and I quote, ``detailed data to
demonstrate the number of reports, complaints, or allegations
of sexual abuse made to the NGB and the handling of that
information,'' end quote.
Almost every NGB has responded in some fashion that they
have not always tracked such information, the report,
complaint, or allegations.
Ms. Lyons, does it concern you that the NGBs apparently
have not always tracked such information about complaints of
sexual abuse?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, that's a concern. And I will point out that
there was no rule and is no rule at the moment that they have
to report it to us, as well. They do have to report it to the
Center, and we are now getting reports from the Center.
Mr. Barton. Why does not or did not the USOC require such
information, each NGB to track and monitor this type of
information?
Ms. Lyons. I think the way we operated with the NGBs in the
past was different. There was much more autonomy, and we did
not exercise the authority that I think the act gives us. I
think that's one of the reasons we're putting together a
governance review that I am sure will result in us having a
much better feedback loop and us following up on those things.
Mr. Barton. Are you now requiring that such information be
tracked?
Ms. Lyons. We will be. We are not yet, but we will be.
Mr. Barton. When is your timetable to do that?
Ms. Lyons. Our governance review is in the process of
getting rolling, and I am absolutely certain that's one of the
very first things that will occur.
Mr. Barton. Next question is to Kerry Perry--which, by the
way, that's a nice name, Kerry Perry.
I understand that you are still trying to compile data so
you can provide the committee with the aggregate number of
reports, complaints, or allegations made to USA Gymnastics.
Can you please explain why it is taking so long to provide
the committee with the aggregate number of complaints that USA
Gymnastics has received regarding sexual misconduct?
Ms. Perry. Yes, sir.
So since I started in December one of the first things I
looked at--and to your point, it is very concerning--what type
of reports have been made, looking at a history. And,
unfortunately, what I have discovered was that there wasn't a
lot of great data.
I can't answer to that. But what I can tell you is, since
the last several months, we have embarked on a journey to
really find a really good database for tracking and really
keeping internally records of everything that is either
investigated by the Center, sent to the Center, or going
through the process at USA Gymnastics.
What I can tell you is that, as of January of this year
through April, USA Gymnastics had approximately 275 cases. Of
that 275, about 78 went to the Center for sexual abuse.
I can also tell you that we have recently signed a contract
with a vendor, in fact, the same that the Center is using,
because for me it was needed information, and I wanted to make
sure that we took care of that immediately.
Mr. Barton. When do you think your new system is going to
be fully implemented?
Ms. Perry. We are in the implementation phase right now,
and so we believe in the next 2 months. But in the meantime we
are tracking all of the allegations that are coming through in
a database that has been created internally.
Mr. Barton. My last question is for Mr. McNally.
In your response letter your organization has admitted it
has failed to fully comply with track information about
allegations of sexual abuse, including oral reports. What type
of complaints, if any, did Taekwondo track?
Mr. McNally. So the reports that I found are the ones that
generally went through the hearing process. There's very little
information of anything that didn't proceed to that stage.
Mr. Barton. So what's Taekwondo's effort right now to
compile this information, to track it, and to follow up on it?
Mr. McNally. So since I took over we're keeping our own
internal database. But we also were proactively reached out to
the USOC to see if they were interested in working with us to
develop a more centralized case tracking. We spoke to that
chief information officer, and one of their analysts is working
on----
Mr. Barton. So it is an active item?
Mr. McNally. Yes, very much so, yes. We really need more
historical information, but we also need to make sure that
nothing ever slips through the cracks again.
Mr. Barton. Thank you for your discretion, Mr. Chairman. I
yield back.
Mr. Harper. The Chair will now recognize the ranking member
of the full committee, Mr. Pallone, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
All my questions are of Ms. Pfohl, and I'm going to try to
get through them quickly, if I can.
I understand that since 2017 the U.S. Center for SafeSport
has been responsible for investigating all complaints involving
sexual misconduct. So, Ms. Pfohl, I'm glad that you're here
today so we can learn exactly how SafeSport operates.
My first question is, if you would briefly walk me through
what happens when SafeSport receives a complaint from an
athlete. I know this probably varies based on the type of
complaint. But generally speaking, what takes place?
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you for the question, Representative
Pallone.
So when a call or if a report comes in through our Web
site, however it comes in, it can be an email, it can be
anonymously, it could be a third party, we are immediately
triaging those reports. Obviously what we look for is, do we
need to call law enforcement? So is sexual abuse of a minor
part of that report? We immediately call law enforcement if
that's the case.
At the same time we are also looking at, is someone in
harm's way? And if we feel like that's the case, then we will
immediately impose an interim measure or an interim suspension.
From there, the investigation continues with a qualified
investigator that is versed in trauma-informed investigations.
And we are of course talking to the reporting party as well as
the responding party or the alleged individual for which the
report is on.
From there, again, collecting information from them,
collecting information from witnesses. Sometimes there are a
lot of witnesses. Sometimes not. So that impacts the length of
the investigation.
Mr. Pallone. How long does it take for you to complete an
investigation typically?
Ms. Pfohl. It depends. It depends on all of those factors.
How many investigations? Are there more than one reporting
party? How far back does it go? All of those things weigh in.
We're averaging 63 days right now from start to finishing,
average. Some are much longer, some are shorter.
Mr. Pallone. Now, who has the final say on how case is
resolved?
Ms. Pfohl. We have a director or of investigations and
decisions, that once our investigators do their work--and by
the way, we deal in facts, so we have a fair process whereby
the facts are gathered. Those facts go in the form of a report
to the director of investigations. He is determining whether a
breach of the SafeSport code took place.
If a breach took place, then a sanction is administered.
And that sanction could be anything from a warning to a
permanent ineligibility. And there are options for hearings and
arbitration both at the interim measure as well as the
sanctioning stage.
Mr. Pallone. I don't know if I'm going to get through all
this, but you mentioned referral to law enforcement. For
example, Mr. McNally's written testimony describes challenges
that U.S. Taekwondo faced when it reported cases to law
enforcement, such as being told that law enforcement does not
even want a target to know that he or she is being
investigated.
So let me ask you, what steps can SafeSport take to protect
athletes while law enforcement is investigating a case? And
does SafeSport take steps to keep athletes informed of the
status of an investigation when law enforcement is involved?
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you. That's an important question.
Absolutely. So we would work with law enforcement. And it
is true, depending on the case, the law enforcement agent or
agency may want us to not work on the investigation formally.
However, we have the obligation to protect athletes, so we
would work with them, let them know that, look, we need to put
in an interim measure so that athletes are protected. And
athlete safety comes first.
Mr. Pallone. All right. Let me just skip over, because I
wanted to ask one more thing, and probably all I have time for.
I understand the type of complaints that SafeSport manages
requires a complete investigative process, but the concern is
that some people might not understand how this process works
and that this lack of understanding may keep some individuals
from coming forward.
So what steps has SafeSport taken to explain to athletes
how this process works? And do you believe that all the sports
governing bodies and athletes have a complete understanding of
your authority and how your investigative process works so that
they would actually not hesitate to come forward?
Ms. Pfohl. Right. I think we're still in the stage of
getting the word out and building trust among really the 13
million individuals that are part of the Olympic and Paralympic
movements, absolutely.
But we're doing that through our prevention work as well,
the online training, our education. I'll say the USOC has
helped us with a couple of PSAs that are now being shown on
national television and at events.
So we're looking to continue these sorts of partnerships
with all of the national governing bodies and the USOC because
they have direct access to all of their members. So we're
working on information that's on their Web site. We have got to
make that consistent across all of the NGBs. And that's being
worked out right now.
Mr. Pallone. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair would like to welcome to the dais Congressman
Doug Lamborn, who is from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Glad to have you.
And the Chair will recognize the vice chairman----
Ms. DeGette. His district includes the U.S. Olympic
Committee.
Mr. Harper. In Colorado Springs, absolutely.
And so the Chair will recognize the vice chairman of the
subcommittee, Mr. Griffith, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Griffith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Lyons, if you'll turn to Tab 7, you will see the
recommendations from the United States Olympic Committee's 2010
Working Group for Safe Training Environments.
What specific events led to the creation of the working
group in 2010?
Ms. Lyons. The working group really was created in the
aftermath of many of the swimming allegations that came out in
2010. And while that NGB began to work on their own issues, we
developed a working group to look more broadly across the whole
system.
Mr. Griffith. Thank you.
And in response to the 2010 working group's
recommendations, the USOC launched SafeSport in 2012. Then in
2013 the USOC established a SafeSport Working Group, and the
2013 working group recommended that case management for sexual
misconduct cases should be consolidated under a new independent
entity with an independent board of directors.
As you will see in Tab 8, the USOC approved the creation of
the U.S. Center for SafeSport in 2014. The Center, however, was
not launched until March 3, 2017.
Tell me why it took 7 years since the working group was
created and nearly 3 years from the USOC approving the U.S.
Center for SafeSport until that Center was launched.
Ms. Lyons. First, let me say it did take too long. There
are some reasons why it took a while, funding being one,
insurance issues being another, very complicated, and trying to
get all of the national governing bodies to do the earlier
steps that preceded the Center, which was to put in some
mandatory requirements and to get them in compliance.
But, frankly, it took too long, and we regret that it did
not open sooner. It may have saved some of the tragedy that
occurred.
Mr. Griffith. Given that it took so long to get the Center
started, did the USOC handle any cases of sexual misconduct for
the national governing bodies or assist those NGBs prior to the
Center's launch in March of 2017?
Ms. Lyons. There is a sort of an escalation process, and at
times if an issue could not be resolved within a national
governing body it can then come be escalated up to the USOC.
And there were a number of cases that we would become involved
in during that time, as well. It is far superior for it to go
to an independent body as it does today.
Mr. Griffith. All right. So let me ask you this. Would
those cases, if something happened and somebody was banned or
there was disciplinary action, show up on the Center's Web site
where you can go check to see if somebody has been disciplined?
Ms. Lyons. I think that our banned lists are very
incomplete today. And I'm very glad you brought it up, because
it is one of the first things we need to do. We have to have
consistency against the NGBs collecting that information. To
the extent that we have cases, we have to collect it. It all
needs to be ultimately put together in one database where
everyone will have transparency to it. That does not exist
today.
Mr. Griffith. All right.
Keeping with that, Mr. Hinchey, the work that you all did,
you all actually started in 2010 and worked with SafeSport
before the Center was opened up. Are your cases in a database
where people can go search? If so, they can see who has been
banned? Or have you given that information to the Center and
you can search it there?
Mr. Hinchey. We have a banned list that is published on our
Web site.
Mr. Griffith. OK. I appreciate that.
Back to you, Ms. Lyons. I just wanted to get that one in.
Is the U.S. Center for SafeSport now functional as a completely
independent entity or does the U.S. Center for SafeSport rely
on the USOC and/or the NGBs for any investigational purposes?
Ms. Lyons. The Center is not relying on us for
investigational purposes. We are assisting with the funding, as
you know, but they are indeed an independent body.
Mr. Griffith. So your role at this point is just funding?
Ms. Lyons. Funding, and also help and advise on broader
issues. They are in their growth stage, just as when we started
USADA----
Mr. Griffith. But not investigative?
Ms. Lyons. Not investigating. We have no role in that.
Mr. Griffith. Mr. Hinchey, I'm going to shift to you. You
indicated in your oral statement that 90-plus individuals have
been banned from USA Swimming for sexual misconduct-related
violations since the inception of your SafeSport program in the
fall of 2010. Is that accurate? Did I understand that
correctly?
Mr. Hinchey. Yes, that's correct.
Mr. Griffith. All right. And how have USA Swimming's
policies and procedures changed regarding how you handle sexual
misconduct claims since the U.S. Center for SafeSport was
launched in 2017?
Mr. Hinchey. Over the course of that transition, which
started July 1 of last year, there have been 75 complaints that
have gone straight to the U.S. Center for SafeSport from our
governing body. But they now handle the adjudication, they
handle the initial complaints, but we're here to support it in
any way we can.
Mr. Griffith. All right. You have heard concerns from Ms.
Lyons in how long it took since you all were involved at USA
Swimming in the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport and
started your own program in 2010. Were you all concerned about
the amount of time it took to launch the U.S. Center for
SafeSport?
Mr. Hinchey. Clearly it should have been started earlier.
Having said that, we also take responsibility for our own
problems. And, you know, regardless of whatever time it took it
to get the independent group going, which we do think is great
and we want to support it, these are still our problems, and we
need to step up and take responsibility.
Mr. Griffith. I appreciate that. Both you and I are
swimmers and we love the sport, and there's a lot of positives
we're not going over today. And I wish I could tell countless
stories of people who have benefited from these programs, but
we have got to take care of the problems, too.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize Mr. Tonko for 5 minutes.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.
Routine audits are essential to promote athlete safety and
to ensure that athlete safety policies are implemented
correctly.
Last year the Olympic Committee retained consulting firm
Baker Tilly to conduct an audit of the U.S. Olympic Committee
and all national governing bodies to assess their
implementation of the new SafeSport requirements. Rick Adams,
the committee's chief of Paralympic sports and national
governing body organizational development, told the Senate
judiciary committee last year that they were unique one-time
audits.
Ms. Lyons, the October 2017 audit recommended that the
Olympic Committee address 10 areas in need of improvement. I
believe they're referenced in exhibit 2. Very briefly, what did
you learn from having those audits conducted and implementing
these recommendations? Was it a useful process?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, it's a very useful process, and I think
audits will be a bigger part of what we do going forward.
What we learned--and part of this was as we were putting in
new processes and procedures--is that it is--all NGBs are
different. Some have better capabilities to very quickly adopt
change, others require more help.
I am glad to say that all of the NGBs that had deficiencies
through that audit process have now come up to standard. And we
will be repeating that audit process on a rotating basis to
ensure that we continue compliance.
Mr. Tonko. OK. And as part of this audit work they found
that two of our witnesses today, USA Volleyball and USA
Taekwondo, had areas where they needed to enhance the design of
their systems and make recommendations on how they could do so.
So the value of these audits is clear.
Going forward, I believe it is important to regularly
assess SafeSport policies and their implementation to ensure
that they are effective in their protecting of the athletes.
So I want to ask you, Ms. Pfohl, if her organization plans
to undertake regular performance audits to ensure it is meeting
the needs of the massive sporting organizing it is now charged
with protecting.
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you for the question.
The new legislation, the Protecting Young Victims and Safe
Sport Authorization Act, calls on the Center to perform regular
and random audits of the NGBs. And so, yes, we intend to do
that, resources permitting.
Mr. Tonko. And, Ms. Pfohl, again, what is the Center for
SafeSport doing to assess how effective SafeSport policies are
in reducing the likelihood of abuse?
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you for that question, as well.
We actually have now an outside consultant, a firm coming
in actually to go through the cases that we have already closed
to determine if there's something that we missed, is there
something that we could have done better.
So already in our--just over our first year we're already
doing a look back and saying, ``OK, how did we do?''
So we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to look at
policies. We are always looking for best practices, and when we
see best practices and new policies that need to be put into
place we will do so.
Mr. Tonko. And do you plan to have regular performance
audits of SafeSport's performance?
Ms. Pfohl. Absolutely.
Mr. Tonko. OK. And do you believe that you have sufficient
resources to periodically audit how well the SafeSport system
is performing?
Ms. Pfohl. I would say that our resources are limited in
that area in terms of self-audits, if you will. But our goal,
and I know it is a high priority for our board, we will find
the resources to be able to do it.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you.
And finally, do you plan to have regular audits done of the
sports governing bodies to ensure that they are implementing
their SafeSport policies going forward?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes, sir. As I mentioned, that is called for in
the Safe Sport Authorization Act.
Mr. Tonko. And then to any of the panel, beyond audits,
what can be done to protect the athlete?
Mr. Hinchey. I think from my perspective, Congressman, that
we need to empower the athletes. We need to hear their voices.
We need to get them involved in the process. And that's
something we hadn't done at the start of our process, but
something we've learned over the last 8 years, and we intend to
do that coming forward.
Mr. Tonko. Mr. Hinchey, that's a good point, and thank you.
And how would we do that? What's the structure by which to
empower their voices?
Mr. Hinchey. We need to invite them to be part of the
process. And right now, as an example, for us, we started a
working group that's a combination of some athletes, Olympic
athletes, local coaches, board members, six women and five men,
to start to really vet where we have been and where we need to
go.
Mr. Tonko. Does anyone else want to add to that statement?
Ms. Lyons. I would like to add that I think we're focusing
a lot on the aftermath of abuse. I think one of the most
important things we can do is education that prevents abuse.
And much of the Centers' charge going forward is that
education, which goes beyond the NGBs and their members. It
goes down to every gym and every dojo in America where a 6-
year-old is training.
We need to enlist the Boys and Girls Clubs and all the
other organizations and get parents educated so that people
know earlier how to spot these signs of grooming and signs that
may lead to abuse so that we can stop these cases before they
occur.
Mr. Tonko. Thank you so much.
And with that, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize Dr. Burgess for 5 minutes.
Mr. Burgess. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, Mr. Chairman,
let me just say I have been on this subcommittee for a long
time, along with a couple of other members, and this has been
one of the most difficult hearings to research and prepare for.
And I appreciate so much everyone participating today, because
it's so important that we get it right.
Mr. Griffith referenced the positive aspects that,
unfortunately, we're not really able to spotlight today because
of the nature of the hearing. I have a university in my
district, Texas Woman's University, my staff handed me a
newspaper article from last month, April 16: Texas Woman's
University secured the program's 11th USA Gymnastics Collegiate
national title on Saturday and registered the highest score
ever seen in the championship.
Clearly, you all are in this for the athletes, and that's
for the right reason, because the benefits returned from these
programs are significant for the athletes themselves, their
families, clearly their colleges, their universities, and the
communities where they reside. So I don't want to lose sight of
that fact even though what we're looking into is just
astonishing in how difficult it is.
So as someone with a medical background one of the things
that has just been very difficult for me is how a medical
professional has caused all of this damage. And this individual
was licensed in the State of Michigan, but not in the State of
Texas. And under our current laws, States are responsible for
licensing the people who provide medical care within their
borders.
So, Ms. Lyons and Ms. Perry, I guess my question is to you.
And I'll ask you, Ms. Pfohl, the same thing.
This individual, not licensed in Texas, was providing
services, care, whatever he did, at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas,
not licensed by the State of Texas. So how do you go about
ensuring that physicians that are taking care of your athletes
are compliant with licensing obligations?
And, Ms. Lyons, I guess we'll start with you and then we'll
go to Ms. Perry.
Ms. Lyons. Well, I think that's one reason we want to
embark upon our-- why we have our independent investigation
from Ropes & Gray underway, to find out actually how some of
these gaps in the systems occurred.
There are supposed to be background checks. There's
supposed to be medical certification checks. I may have to
defer to my colleague. The national governing bodies are
responsible for the licensing of their own physicians, but
those checks are meant to happen. And I think the investigation
will help us understand if they did or did not and why.
Mr. Burgess. And we see what a serious breach this was when
this didn't happen in this case.
And, Ms. Perry, I guess that when an individual signs on to
a training program at a ranch like this, I mean, presumably
there's some type of consent that is entered into. Is that not
correct?
Ms. Perry. First, I want to say it is horrific. And, you
know, every day that I wake up I think about how do we make
sure as an entity that we are doing everything we can to
protect our athletes. That's why I took this position in
December.
And so one of the things that we are looking at, as Ms.
Lyons talked about, was finding out the facts that could have
led up to such a horrible situation.
And so having the Ropes & Gray independent investigation is
very important to us, and it is very important to me, to learn,
so that we can make sure that we go down the right path.
One of the things that I looked at immediately was that I
did not want our athletes to ever return to a place where they
had abuse. So as you all know, we closed the ranch.
Mr. Burgess. Thank you.
Ms. Perry. That was very important.
But on a go-forward, I think it really does make a big
difference that as a national governing body we look at
everything--we look at our structure, we look at our policies,
we look at our systems, we look at our medical--and we hold
ourselves to the highest standard. Because, ultimately, we
represent and we advocate our athletes, and I am committed to
that every day.
Mr. Burgess. So, I mean, just to point out the obvious
here, though, you had an unlicensed physician taking care of
people. I don't know if the parents of these children were
apprised of the fact: Here's a physician who is not licensed in
the State of Texas who is going to be participating in the
training program. It is wrong on so many levels, and,
unfortunately, now we see the consequences of that.
And I guess I just have to ask, I mean, who paid for this
doctor? Was it something the parents had to pay for? Did the
ranch pay for it? Who was responsible for paying for this?
Ms. Perry. From my understanding, he was a volunteer, but
he was paid expenses. I believe everybody knows he was an
employee of Michigan State, but he was a volunteer for USA
Gymnastics.
Mr. Burgess. OK. All right.
Well, Mr. Chairman, I have got so many more questions, and
I will submit them for the record.
Mr. Davis, I really thank you for your testimony today. It
underscores the point of how important it is that we get this
right. We can think we have got it right, and then it turns out
we didn't get it right, and then years later you have to
continue to deal with the problems from not getting it right.
It is important that we be right on this.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll yield back.
Mr. Davis. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from Illinois,
Ms. Schakowsky, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Schakowsky. Thank you.
I just want to begin with a statement about your testimony,
Mr. Davis. I'm from the Chicago area. And I think it is just
shocking that Rick Butler, after being banned for abusing
underage girls, appealed that lifetime ban and was reinstated.
It is just incredible. And that it wasn't until January of
2018, this year, that there is a lifetime ban. This really
underscores the problem that has occurred over so many years.
Anyone in this room, I think, certainly the women know, if
someone has abused underage girls, reinstating him is so
unacceptable. He should have been in jail. And now, in today's,
world I think he would have. I hope he would have.
Let me just turn to--I would like to recognize Arlene Limas
in the audience.
If you would stand, Arlene, if she is still here.
Arlene is an Olympic athlete and taekwondo coach, and we
met about 2 months ago and she shared with me chilling stories
about sexual abuse at training camps and competitions.
Mr. McNally, last year three of your athletes were awarded
$60 million in damages--a total of--after a judge found that a
coach sexually abused them. You're familiar with that, correct?
Could you say into the mike?
Mr. McNally. Yes, I am.
Ms. Schakowsky. Thank you.
Taekwondo also allegedly permitted an athlete and a coach
to participate in the 2016 Olympics even though there were
unresolved sexual misconduct allegations against them.
SafeSport finally recommended an interim ban against those
individuals just this year.
Are you familiar with this matter, as well?
Mr. McNally. Yes, I am.
Ms. Schakowsky. In the case of John Lopez, you mentioned
multiple investigations and attempts to ban Mr. Lopez in 2013
and 2015. But my understanding is that these efforts were
unrelated to sexual abuse. Is that true?
Mr. McNally. Yes. That's correct.
Ms. Schakowsky. And the topic of this hearing, by the way,
is about sexual abuse. And isn't it also true that it wasn't
until 2018 that Mr. Lopez was sanctioned for sexual misconduct?
Mr. McNally. Yes. That's correct.
Ms. Schakowsky. OK. I think that identifies a problem here.
Your March 21, 2018, letter to this committee indicated
that there are roughly two dozen individuals facing suspensions
or lifetime bans from your sport. Were any of these reported to
law enforcement?
Mr. McNally. I believe yes. Some of them actually came from
law enforcement through cases where they were charged. As soon
as they were charged they were suspended. Some of them went to
prison and were added through there.
I don't know about every case historically, but since I
took over, and even earlier than that, since the incorporation
of the SafeSport Center, every case has been--with a criminal
element--has been turned over to law enforcement.
Ms. Schakowsky. I would like to know how many of the
roughly two dozen have been referred to law enforcement?
Mr. McNally. So that's something----
Ms. Schakowsky. You'll get that to me, right?
Mr. McNally. Yes, I will.
Ms. Schakowsky. OK.
Mr. McKinley, how is it that U.S. Taekwondo addressing--how
is Taekwondo addressing the assistant coaches and team managers
that may have had a role in covering up sexual abuse in your
sport?
Mr. McNally. Every report that we get, every report that is
submitted to us, is immediately submitted to the U.S. Center
for SafeSports.
Ms. Schakowsky. I'm asking a different question. If there
are individuals within the sport that are silent, that are
covering up, that don't tell you. Because I think probably for
every one of these cases of sexual abuse someone knew about it
and didn't say anything.
So what is the process there?
Mr. McNally. So we are looking to, as Mr. Hinchey said, to
empower the athletes. We're launching our #notinmysport
campaign to encourage athletes to come forward. We are much
more open, I believe, at regaining the trust of the athlete
community. They know that I will deal with this if it comes to
me. And I would encourage anybody with one of those stories who
has been silent up until now----
Ms. Schakowsky. What about the coach community, too?
There's assistant coaches, there's all kind of staff.
Mr. McNally. Anybody who has knowledge of anything, however
small, however serious, I encourage them to bring it to me.
Ms. Schakowsky. I'm still asking a different question. What
if you know that there have been people that have been silent
that knew of these abuses, is there any sanction at all?
Mr. McNally. We deal with every report that comes to us.
That is why in 2015 USA Taekwondo preceded the independent body
of the SafeSport Center by appointing our----
Ms. Schakowsky. I guess I'll have to ask the question more
precisely in writing, because my time is up. But it seems to me
that whether it's reported or not, that you ought to do
inquiries to find out who has stood by and watched sexual abuse
occur.
And I have to yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Harper. The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from Indiana,
Mrs. Brooks, who is also the chair of the Ethics Committee in
the House.
Mrs. Brooks.
Mrs. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Pfohl, I'd like to focus a number of my questions on
you.
If you would turn to Tab 9, it talks about the Center
receiving 488 written and oral reports, complaints, and
allegations regarding sexual abuse since the Center launched
until April 13, 2018.
Now, this is a significant number of cases. I'm also a
former U.S. Attorney, Federal prosecutor involved in child
exploitation cases and so forth.
Given the significant number of cases that your Center has
received, how is the Center prioritizing cases in any way, if
you are?
And I have a number of questions, and so if we could be
brief, and we may ask for more answers in written form.
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you, Congresswoman.
We triage the cases as they come in.Again, if they need to
go to law enforcement, that happens. We're inputting interim
measures. If individuals are active, if it involves a minor,
those are prioritized.
Mrs. Brooks. And can you please share with us in Tab 9
that, as we have already heard, the allegations come from 35 of
the 48 NGBs, and how are you working with the NGBs to make
sure--and athletes, as we have talked about, the priority in
athletes--to make sure that they are familiar that SafeSport--
that the Center exists and the policies and procedures? I know
the NGBs do, but how do we make sure that athletes know you
exist?
Ms. Pfohl. Great question. Thank you again.
By the way, I think we're up to 38 of the sports now, the
NGBs sports.
So how we do that----
Mrs. Brooks. Thirty-eight of the 48 have allegations?
Ms. Pfohl. Thirty-eight, correct, have at least one report
that we have received, at least one report.
So, again, we work with the NGBs. We have now a full-time
NGB resources manager, and her job, every day, all day, is to
communicate back and forth with the NGBs to give them
consistent information.
To listen to them also, for them to tell us what they need.
For example, we heard they needed parent toolkits. We have a
parent toolkit now on our Web site that anyone can access.
Mrs. Brooks. Are any of the NGBs not cooperating with you?
Ms. Pfohl. No, ma'am.
Mrs. Brooks. And I understand NGBs are various sizes and
have various----
Ms. Pfohl. Resources, yes.
Mrs. Brooks. And various resources. But it is fair to say
that all NGBs today are cooperating with you?
Ms. Pfohl. To the best of my knowledge, every NGB is
cooperating.
Mrs. Brooks. In the 2018 omnibus Congress established a
grant program to help keep our young athletes safe. Have the
Attorney General and the Justice Department, to your knowledge,
set up the grant program yet and established the timing and
content of the application of that grant?
Ms. Pfohl. Ma'am, we have not seen the RFP come out, the
guidance come out yet regarding that grant program, but we look
forward to it.
Mrs. Brooks. And it was a $2.5 million grant program, is my
understanding?
Ms. Pfohl. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Mrs. Brooks. If the Center for SafeSport were to apply for
this grant, and we will be making inquiries as to what is
taking time to establish this grant program authorized by
Congress and passed in the omnibus, how would those grant funds
be used if Center for SafeSport were to receive those funds?
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you for the question.
Absolutely. To expand our response, meaning our response
and resolution. To be able to add more investigators. Also
remember, the bill did call for us to do regular and random
audits of the NGBs, again, so that we can further work and get
the word out through them to the athletes, directly to
athletes.
Mrs. Brooks. Have the audits begun yet?
Ms. Pfohl. No.
Mrs. Brooks. And why is that?
Ms. Pfohl. We don't have the resources to do the audits
yet.
Mrs. Brooks. And have you made any requests yet of the USOC
or of the NGBs for more resources?
Ms. Pfohl. Not--no, ma'am, not since the doubling of the
support from the USOC. We are, of course, now looking to 2019
and looking at the contributions from all of the national
governing bodies.
And thanks, Tim, for stepping up and saying you could do
more.
Mrs. Brooks. There is no statute of limitations. I want to
get that out, as well.
Ms. Pfohl. Correct, correct.
Mrs. Brooks. You mentioned there are no statute of
limitations with regard to the reporting.
Ms. Pfohl. Correct.
Mrs. Brooks. Or with regard to your investigations.
Ms. Pfohl. Correct.
Mrs. Brooks. And there has been some criticism with respect
to the independence. I would like for you to tell us what is
the Center doing to ensure athletes can trust the Center's
independence and reporting of these allegations.
Ms. Pfohl. Absolutely. So thank you again.
I don't answer to anyone at the USOC or any of the national
governing bodies, nor does anyone on my team.
Mrs. Brooks. Do you expect the funding to always come from
the USOC?
Ms. Pfohl. Our goal, ma'am, is to diversify that funding.
We are looking at foundation funds, and some of that is
starting to come in now. Certainly if the Federal--if we are
able to receive some Federal dollars that will help diversify,
as well.
I can't imagine a time where the USOC and the NGBs would
not be investing in this space. I think they should be and will
continue to be. But I also think that we can diversify that,
especially in the area of prevention.
Mrs. Brooks. Thank you.
And for the record, I'll be submitting a record for all of
the panelists and commending USA Gymnastics for beginning the
Athlete Task Force and will be asking--my time is up--as to
whether or not each of the NGBs are creating an Athlete Task
Force, which will shape your organization's future in their
decisions and their operating decisions.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize Ms. Clarke for 5 minutes.
Ms. Clarke. I thank you, Chairman Harper and Ranking Member
DeGette, for holding this hearing today on this important topic
of how we must protect our Nation's most elite club of
athletes.
Being an Olympian is a coveted title not easily given, and
is not limited by age, with the youngest at only 13 years old.
This protected class of youth, who display exceptional ability,
should not have to worry if they will be violated by a trusted
coach or any adult in the room.
Given what we have learned through the sentencing of Dr.
Larry Nassar, it is Congress' responsibility and obligation to
ensure that strong and appropriate measures are put in place so
that trusted personnel are held accountable to the highest
standard of conduct.
Having said that, Ms. Lyons, earlier this year the U.S.
Olympic Committee threatened USA Gymnastics with
decertification. The U.S. Olympic Committee demanded that all
members of the USA Gymnastics board resign, which they did. Is
that correct?
Ms. Lyons. That's correct.
Ms. Clarke. So the U.S. Olympic Committee can use its
authority to require sports governing bodies to adopt certain
standards. It can demand changes, as it did with USA
Gymnastics.
Documents provided to the committee show that sports
governing bodies have different policies on key safety issues.
For example, some sports' governing bodies make lists of banned
coaches and other members make it publicly available, others do
not.
Ms. Lyons, why do some governing bodies post public lists
while others do not?
Ms. Lyons. I think that consistency is an incredibly
important part of what we need to achieve going forward.
To date, as you mentioned, they're very different. Keeping
banned lists is a complicated issue.
At the same time, we need to figure it out and we need to
ensure that centralized information is provided by every single
NGB and that it's accessible to the public.
It has not happened to date, and I regret that we did not
exercise more of our authority to enforce that as a standard
for the NGBs prior to this.
Ms. Clarke. So will you be doing that? Is that something
that you will enforce?
Ms. Lyons. That has been added to my to-do list this very
week.
Ms. Clarke. Absolutely.
Ms. Lyons, your May 16, 2018, letter to us states that the
U.S. Olympic Committee recognizes the need for greater
transparency and uniformity with respect to sexual assault.
Shouldn't there be uniformity regarding public lists? You
stated that that's on your to-do list. And in this area, where
the Olympic Committee could demand that governing bodies make
these changes, what is your timetable?
Ms. Lyons. We do need to confer with all of our NGB
partners because, as you know, they are very different in size
and they are very different in their technological
capabilities. I'm guessing that we may need to help provide a
technology tool that can be used by those that don't have their
own tool.
So I couldn't yet speculate on the timeframe, but we will
put that on an urgent path because I can't see how that's not
an important part of our----
Ms. Clarke. Yes. And where there's need for support, I
think, you know, this is a valuable use of resource. It's
important that we standardize this.
And I understand that sports governing bodies are now
required to report all new cases to the Center for SafeSport.
But nationally, governing bodies are not required to submit
pre-March 2017 cases to the Center for SafeSport.
A recent headline in USA Today on March 16, 2018,
reads:``USA Gymnastics makes puzzling decision to keep sexual
abuse case.''
Ms. Lyons, how do we know that cases predating SafeSport's
opening are being addressed appropriately?
Ms. Lyons. The Center has the option to take some of the
preexisting cases if it chooses. There is a sensitivity that if
a victim has already been through a good part of the
investigatory process, that perhaps it may not be beneficial to
them to go through it again. So in some of those cases, the
NGBs have opted to keep a case that's already in progress. But
the Center can choose to take that if it wishes to.
Ms. Clarke. Who is examining that to make sure that there's
transparency and that there's a coherence to a standard and
that there's no short shrifting in terms of determining what
rises to the occasion of a crime and what doesn't?
Ms. Lyons. I would have to say when I read the article I
had the same question. And I'm not certain of the answer. But I
will be looking into that. But clearly, we should make sure
that the Center is aware of all these cases and has the option
to take them if they feel it's appropriate. I'm not sure that
it is currently the standard.
Ms. Clarke. Well, I hope you will give scrutiny to that.
And I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Harper. The gentlewoman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentleman from Michigan,
Mr. Walberg, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Walberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thanks to the panel for being here today.
Coming from Michigan, this issue hits especially close to
home, sadly. What happened at USAG and MSU under Larry Nassar
is terrible, unacceptable, unexplainable.
Thankfully, hundreds of brave young women came forward to
tell their stories, helped put the predatory, Dr.Nassar--I
guess I would change that--put the predator, Nassar, behind
bars and close the chapter on just one of many incidents that
we have heard about.
As an aside, Ms. Pfohl, thank you for stating the U.S.
Center for SafeSport's mission statement and restating it as
well. It is good to hear.
The mission statement for the U.S. Olympic Committee states
it this way: Its mission is to support U.S. Olympic and
Paralympic competitive excellence while demonstrating the
values of the Olympic movement, thereby inspiring all
Americans.
Ms. Lyons, did this incident even remotely follow the
mission of the USOC?
Ms. Lyons. First, I would say that I think the athletes do
continue to inspire all Americans. And I think, sadly, the
institutions that support those athletes have not inspired
confidence, trust, or have lived up to our mission and values,
and we deeply regret that that has occurred.
And that is one reason why we are embarking upon all of the
action plans that we've discussed, because the athletes deserve
to have everyone believe that the work that they do and what
the Olympics stands for should be held in highest esteem, and
we have let them down.
Mr. Walberg. I appreciate you stating that, knowing you
weren't there in this position at the time all of this went
down. But I think it is important that the commitment to that
mission statement is affirmed and affirmed and affirmed still
further.
And so, Ms. Perry, I would also ask similarly, did what
happened in Michigan with the predator, Mr. Nassar, and USA
Gymnastics even remotely resemble the mission statement I just
read?
Ms. Perry. I was there at the hearings. And I want to say,
first, that every moment that I think about what our athletes
went through it energizes me and gives me a sense of resolve
every single day to make sure that we're focusing every part of
our organization on athlete safety.
And as an organization, one of the first things that I did
in December was to look at the mission statement of USA
Gymnastics, and we changed that mission statement. And our
mission statement now focuses on empowering our athletes and
focusing on athlete safety and making sure that we educate our
members to that extent.
And I will tell you that it's something every single day I
think about. And so we want to do whatever we have to do as an
organization to make sure that we prevent. As you all
mentioned, one case of sexual abuse is one too many.
Mr. Walberg. I appreciate that. Then let's continue to look
back a bit.
Public reports indicate that USAG officials knew about
Nassar in the summer of 2015, and USAG officials notified USOC
officials shortly thereafter, in July 2015.
In addition to notifying the FBI, did USAG implement any
formal and public interim measures on Dr.Nassar while the FBI
conducted its investigation to ensure that athletes did not
continue to be at risk while the investigation was under way?
Ms. Perry. I don't have firsthand knowledge, but it is my
understanding that Mr. Nassar was asked to step away.
There is a really important investigation going on right
now, as you mentioned, the Ropes & Gray, which I think is
critically important for all of us so that we can shed light on
what happened.
Mr. Walberg. But did he step away?
Ms. Perry. I would--did he step away at that point?
Mr. Walberg. At that point.
Ms. Perry. It is my understanding that he did, but I would
need to see all the facts around that.
Mr. Walberg. I encourage you to check those facts out.
Ms. Perry. Yes.
Mr. Walberg. Because it appears that there was still
involvement that went on. And at the very least there was a
coverup. Things weren't transparent or clear. And I think that
added to the frustration of athletes and parents, and the
general public as well.
So I would encourage you to continue looking for those
questions----
Ms. Perry. I understand.
Mr. Walberg [continuing]. To make sure it never happens
again.
Ms. Perry. I understand. And I will be relentless in my
efforts every day. And I believe that the Ropes & Gray
investigation is going to really provide a lot of information
that I think I and many others would like to see.
Mr. Walberg. Thanks. And I wish you well.
Ms. Perry. Thank you.
Mr. Walberg. I yield back.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from
California, Mrs. Walters, for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Walters.. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, I would like to start off by saying that as a
mother of four whose kids played local organized sports growing
up, this is a difficult hearing topic.
It is really upsetting to think that my kids and their
teammates could have been coached by someone who had a history
of misconduct, and even more disturbing to think that I and the
rest of the parents would not have known if that was the case
because, as we've recently learned, in most cases lists
containing the names of banned or suspended coaches isn't
public information.
NGBs have different policies regarding whether they
maintain a list of banned coaches, and if they do, whether they
publicize the list.
The committee asked all 48 NGBs and the USOC whether or not
they maintained a list of individuals banned or suspended from
participation with the NGB, and if so, whether the list was
publicly available.
Only 18 NGBs have a banned or suspended list that is
available to the general public. Other NGBs reported to the
committee that they shared banned or suspended lists with their
members but do not publicly post those lists, have banned lists
but only share it with certain officials, maintain a searchable
database of members in good standing, or have not been banned
or suspended any individuals but would make a list public if
they were to do so.
As you can see, there's a wide variation in whether and how
the NGBs and USOC make their banned or suspended list publicly
available. There are clear benefits to having a publicly
available list.
Ms. Lyons, why hasn't it the USOC mandated that all NGBs
maintain a list, and, further, that they make this list
publicly available?
Ms. Lyons. We will be working with our NGB partners. I
think that we will probably all be in agreement that we need to
find a good way to do this so that that information is
available, transparent, and all in one centralized place where
people can find it. It doesn't exist today, but we will make
that a priority for us all to make that happen.
Mrs. Walters.. So then you will consider mandating that all
NGBs publish a public list of all banned or suspended
individuals?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I think there's a number of things that
will end up getting on the new compliance list that have not
been there before as we exercise some more authority in this
area.
Mrs. Walters.. OK. And this question is for you also.
If an NGB puts an individual on a banned or suspended list,
would the USOC grant that person access to an Olympic center or
event?
Ms. Lyons. That should not occur. If that information is
visible to us, then we have processes and procedures that would
ensure that a person could not get on to an Olympic training
site or an Olympic training center, that they would not be
certified to go to games that we were supervising.
So to your point earlier, the availability of that
information is critical. I think the right procedures are in
place to keep them from entering a location, but you have to
know that they're banned.
Mrs. Walters.. OK. Because the production that the USOC
made to the committee last week included an email from 2016
regarding someone who had been recently suspended by USA
Taekwondo for 5 years due to serious SafeSport violations.
According to the email, notwithstanding the suspension,
this individual was issued a day pass for the High Performance
Center in Rio by the USOC. It states, and I quote: ``This pass
was not officially requested by USA Taekwondo and this
individual is not someone we would grant access to.'' And it
continues: ``It appears one of our coaches went directly to
USOC staff with the request without our approval and somehow
obtained the pass directly.'' And that's an end quote.
Another coach complained about this person being around
female athletes. USA Taekwondo's banned or suspended list is
public. USA Taekwondo banned this individual for 5 years and
the USOC granted him access to an official center at the Rio
Olympics.
How do you explain this?
Ms. Lyons. It certainly should not have happened. And it
does point to one of the reasons we're putting together an
athlete safety commission to look at where these gaps in the
system are.
It shouldn't occur. That type of information needs to be
available so that people in those venues would immediately know
to check that list. It should have happened in any case. It did
not.
Mrs. Walters.. Well, I want to highlight what the email
also said, because it went on to say: ``Please help me
understand how this could have happened, as these things have
happened consistently in the past, so this is not an isolated
incident. Neither is it something we can just ignore given the
seriousness of the adjudicated complaints.''
So my point is that this is something that consistently had
happened. And how did that possibly consistently happen?
Ms. Lyons. Clearly, there was not an appropriate policy or
check in place, a check and balance there was a policy to
ensure it was being followed. So we have to do better, and we
have to find out why that happen and make sure it does not
happen in the future.
Mrs. Walters.. OK. I'm out of time. I yield back.
Mr. Griffith [presiding]. I now recognize the gentleman
from Georgia for 5 minutes, Mr. Carter.
Mr. Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Perry, I'll start with you.
Ms. Perry, I have the honor and privilege of representing
the First Congressional District of Georgia, which includes
Effingham County, Georgia, Rincon, Georgia. You ever heard of
it?
Ms. Perry. Yes.
Mr. Carter. You have?
Ms. Perry. Of Effingham----
Mr. Carter. Rincon, Georgia. Effingham County, Georgia.
Ms. Perry. I have.
Mr. Carter. Yes, I'm sure you have.
You're aware of a lawsuit, Jane Does v. USA Gymnastics?
Ms. Perry. I am.
Mr. Carter. You are. And that lawsuit was settled just last
month, I believe.
Ms. Perry. Recently.
Mr. Carter. Recently. Beginning of April it was. That is
correct.
Let me ask you something. Just to give you an idea of what
happened here, there was a gentleman, a gymnast, who opened up
a gym in 2002 in Effingham County. He opened up a gym. And in a
newspaper story, it stated that McCabe--his name is Bill
McCabe, by the way--he's in prison for 30 years, right?
Ms. Perry. Yes.
Mr. Carter. But in 2002 he opened up a gym. A newspaper
article said, ``McCabe and a new partner/girlfriend opened
Savannah Metro Gymnastics in Rincon, Georgia. ... Both are USA
Gymnastics Professional members and USA Gymnastics safety-
certified. Bill is also a USA Gymnastics Skill Evaluator. Bill
has been teaching since 1991.''
Of course, what happened is that the mother of an 8-year-
old enrolled her daughter there. And then what happened was
that for 3 years, until the middle of 2005, that daughter was
in classes there with this sexual predator, is essentially what
he was.
And then what happened was that she went out to her car one
day and she found an envelope on her car, and it had all these
details about what previous problems that Bill McCabe had had.
She took and she called USA Gymnastics. And this is what
she said: ``I spoke to a woman there, and I told her that I had
this packet of complaints against Bill McCabe. And I asked
whether she had any complaints against him. And she said no.''
She said no.
Yet, if you look back on his record, you'll find that in
October of 1996, he was fired from Gymnastics World in Fort
Myers, Florida, because he was bragging to a colleague about
his efforts to coerce a 15-year-old cheerleader to have sex
with him.
And then, in July of 1997, he was fired from Five Star
Gymnastics in Erlanger, Kentucky, following an incident in
which gymnasts he had taken to a camp in Pennsylvania. Parents
had also complained that McCabe exposed his genitals to some
gymnasts.
And then it goes on and on to tell about all these things
before 2002 that this gentleman had done. And in fact, he had
been fired also from another area. And they actually sent a
packet to USA Gymnastics detailing all of these situations that
he had been involved in. And yet, no response whatsoever.
Do you ever do background checks on any of your coaches
like this?
Ms. Perry. First of all, let me state that----
Mr. Carter. Do you ever do background checks on any of your
coaches like this?
Ms. Perry. So----
Mr. Carter. It's a yes-or-no question.
Ms. Perry. There are background checks that are being done
currently.
Mr. Carter. Did you do background checks on him, this
sexual predator who is in jail, in prison for 30 years? Did you
do background checks on him?
Ms. Perry. I was not there. I can't answer that question.
Mr. Carter. Well, find out who was there, because I need an
answer to it.
Ms. Perry. Yes, sir.
Mr. Carter. OK?
Ms. Perry. Yes, sir.
Mr. Carter. Now, you know, it gets better, if there's such
a thing, because after he was sentenced to jail, after he was
in prison, a civil lawsuit was filed. And for 5 years--until it
was just recently settled out of court last month--for 5 years
you argued that you had no responsibility to protect these
children training under your organization?
Ms. Perry. I did not argue that. That's unacceptable. I did
not argue that.
Mr. Carter. Who argued it then?
Ms. Perry. I started in December of 2017.
But let me say this----
Mr. Carter. Now, you know, let me say this: This is
ridiculous.
Ms. Perry. I agree.
Mr. Carter. And how you can work for an organization like
this that let this happen.
You know, I've sat here throughout this whole hearing, and
there's one thing I haven't heard from any of you--from any of
you--and that is, ``I'm sorry.'' I haven't heard from any one
of you say to the parents, to the children, to the
grandparents, ``I'm sorry.'' And that's despicable.
Ms. Perry. Let me answer if I can, please.
Mr. Carter. Answer what?
Ms. Perry. I've said I'm sorry.
Mr. Carter. If you don't want to say you're sorry, I don't
want to talk to you.
And I'm reclaiming my time, ma'am, and I'm going to tell
you, this cannot be tolerated.
Ms. Perry. Right.
Mr. Carter. Ms. Lyons, it's my understanding that you wrote
in an email about a former USA Taekwondo athlete who sent
information--who filed an ethics complaint--you wrote an email
that ``this sounds like the same old BS.'' Did you write that
in an email?
Ms. Lyons. I did.
Mr. Carter. You did? And are you currently the Acting
Director, the acting CEO of the USOC?
Ms. Lyons. I am.
Mr. Carter. You should resign your position now. That
insensitivity tells me that you are not fit to serve in that
position.
Ms. DeGette. Oh, my God.
Mr. Harper [presiding]. The gentleman's time has expired.
Let the record----
Ms. DeGette. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to take a moment of
personal privilege.
Mr. Harper. Just let me say something first.
Let the record reflect that during opening statements the
U.S. Olympic Committee and the NGBs represented here all
acknowledged responsibility for previous actions.
With that, I'll recognize Mr. DeGette for a point of
personal privilege.
Mr. DeGette. Not only that, Mr. Chairman, they all
apologized to the victims, to their parents.
And furthermore, Ms. Perry, who was just relentlessly
badgered by Mr. Carter, was brought in in December to fix this.
Now, I hope she does fix it. But to badger her is
inappropriate, Mr. Carter.
Mr. Carter. Ma'am, she was on the board of directors when
this happened. She was on the board when this happened.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman is no longer recognized. And
we're going to proceed with our questioning.
Mrs. Brooks. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harper. So at this time--yes.
Mrs. Brooks. I believe it is important for us to clarify.
I do not believe that Ms. Perry was on the board of
directors, Mr. Carter. I have met with Ms. Perry after she
began------
Mr. Carter. Not Ms. Perry. Ms. Lyons is who I'm talking
before.
Mrs. Brooks. OK. But for the record, Ms. Perry, who is now
leading USA Gymnastics, was not on the board of directors, was
new to the organization.
Mr. Harper. Let's stay on--thank you for that
clarification.
Mrs. Brooks. Thank you.
Mr. Harper. Let's stay on track. This is an important
hearing and the process of what we're trying to do. And we're
going to stay on message here.
The Chair will now recognize Mr. Costello for 5 minutes.
Mr. Costello. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
If we could have everyone turn to Tab 20. I have a question
for Ms. Lyons and then a question for Ms. Perry.
The memo referenced, 2012 memo in Tab 20, discuses a
requests that NGBs provide feedback to the USOC on the
community's reaction should the USOC insist on criminal
background checks. Ten NGBs apparently never responded. Thirty-
five of the 37 did respond, but required some--that some form
of background check at the time was required.
The two most recently cited obstacles to requiring criminal
background checks: one, costs; two, resistance from the NGB
constituency.
Ms. Lyons, how much resistance did the USOC receive from
the NGB community on requiring background checks?
Ms. Lyons. Well, I was not part of this program. I don't
know precisely.
There was some resistance, and I think for the reasons put
there, people were not, perhaps, putting this at the highest
part of their priority list. And there was some pushback.
Mr. Costello. And so the fact that the USOC did not begin
requiring NGBs to conduct background checks until 2014, 2 years
after this memo, why was there a delay? Would your answer be
that they didn't place a priority on it?
Ms. Lyons. I think the reality would be that putting in the
actual practical applications of doing the background checks
did take some time.
Mr. Costello. Any other reasons why it took 2 years?
Ms. Lyons. It takes a long time to get 49 organizations to
all consistently adhere to a new change.
Mr. Costello. Ms. Perry, USA Gymnastics practice in 2005
was to allow professional members to self-certify as to their
criminal background. When did USAG begin to require an actual
background check instead of the self-certification.
Ms. Perry. I don't--I'm not clear on that date. But I will
tell you right now, for the last several years USA Gymnastics
has required background checks for hiring of professionals, and
in addition to that has other kinds of requirements as club
owners and others are looking to hire individuals. And one of
those is to make sure that they consult with our public-facing
ineligible list and our suspended list online.
Mr. Costello. Would you kindly provide an answer in writing
as to when that did------
Ms. Perry. Yes.
Mr. Costello [continuing]. Take place. Thank you.
To all NGBs, what results might show up on a background
check that would lead your NGB to deny or terminate an
individual's membership? Try and be brief, because I do have a
followup on that.
Mr. Hinchey. Any criminal activity or charges.
Mr. Costello. Any? Shoplifting?
Mr. Hinchey. Anything.
Mr. Costello. OK. Anything else?
OK. If an individual who is already a member fails a
routine followup background check, what action would your NGB
take?
Mr. McNally. So anybody with a felony or a pending felony
charge would be immediately suspended and given the opportunity
for a hearing in front of our Ethics Committee.
Mr. Costello. How about a misdemeanor? Would that be
overlooked or would that also prompt the same level of
scrutiny?
Mr. McNally. A misdemeanor is not an automatic referral to
the Ethics Committee. It would depend on the seriousness.
Mr. Costello. It would depend upon the nature of the
misdemeanor?
Mr. McNally. Yes, it would, yes
Mr. Costello. Any misdemeanor that involved any physical
altercation, assault, or anything of a sexual nature would
prompt it?
Mr. McNally. Yes, it would. Anything, including violence,
sexual or otherwise.
Mr. Costello. OK. If a failing background check doesn't
lead to terminating someone's membership, what would? I don't
like that question, because I don't think it's very clear.
Let me ask you this. Do your policies require background
checks on athletes in addition to coaches, employees, doctors,
volunteers, and the like? Background checks on athletes.
Mr. McNally. USA Taekwondo doesn't require background
checks on athletes, no.
Mr. Hinchey. USA Swimming, no.
Ms. Perry. USA Gymnastics, no.
Mr. Davis. USA Volleyball, no.
Mr. Costello. OK. Mr. McNally, as other NGBs began
implementing these background checks requirement, and the issue
of sexual abuse in sports rose in prominence, especially after
USA Swimming's 2010 revelations, why didn't USA Taekwondo act
faster in implementing this requirement?
Mr. McNally. I'll have to supply that as an answer
following the hearing, because I wasn't there. I believe they
were implemented in late 2013.
Mr. Costello. And for all NGBs, how far into the past do
the background checks go?
Mr. Davis. USA Volleyball started in the 2004-2005 season.
Mr. McNally. I'm not entirely sure. I believe it's as far
back as the records. If there's a felony from 2000, it will
show up.
Mr. Costello. Yes, that was my question, Mr. Davis. The
background check on a particular individual goes back to when?
To the date that they turn 18?
Mr. Davis. I'm sorry. I have to give it to you in writing
exactly on how that process works.
Mr. Costello. Very good.
Mr. Davis. But I believe it goes back to as far as they
turn 18, yes.
Mr. Costello. OK. I would kindly request of all the NGBs,
if you could provide that answer in writing.
Thank you. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentleman from Florida,
Mr. Bilirakis.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it
very much. Thanks for allowing me to sit in on the hearing.
This issue came to national attention because survivors
were willing to speak up about their experiences with abuse. It
was their bravery that shined a light on the many problems
within the national sports organizations and how the systems
previously in place had failed them.
For the panel, and let's start with Ms. Lyons, how are you
involving survivors and other athletes in your decisionmaking
process and policy changes moving forward?
Ms. Lyons. We think that the voice of the athletes is
critically important in forming any of the changes that we
make.
I wish that many of the survivors would come and contact
us. We actually are prevented due to some of the litigation
from reaching out to them directly, but we would welcome their
voices.
We are setting up--we've just done a thousand-athlete
survey, we received a thousand responses on the survey, to get
our broader athlete population helping us to understand what
their concerns are about SafeSport.
We have been meeting with our Athletes' Advisory Council.
And they will be--and other athletes of course--will be part of
our athlete safety panel that's going to go forward and help us
make the policy changes going forward.
Mr. Bilirakis. Ms. Perry.
Ms. Perry. Thank you.
This is something that I think about every day. And one of
the first things that I did when I became president and CEO was
I started flying everywhere and talking to athletes, and some
of those are survivors. And their voice is incredibly important
to me.
And what I have found is that there is just so much love of
this sport, but there's a desire to have an impact on the
organization and its strategic direction. And one of the things
that I created was an Athlete Task Force to have that happen. I
think it's a very important first step.
Ms. Lyons talked about the advisory committee. That's
important.
But for me it is really about getting in front of as many
athletes as I can and making sure that their voice is heard and
that they feel empowered. And I will tell you that that is
something I focus on every day.
Mr. Bilirakis. OK. Please continue. Thank you.
Mr. Hinchey. Congressman, we sent out--I sent out a letter
to our membership encouraging and inviting any survivors to
contact us for a chance to meet, and I would be happy to meet
with them personally.
I've had the opportunity to meet with one survivor thus
far. I've had contact with two others and plan to have two
other meetings.
Aside from that, as I said previously, we need to engage
and empower athletes to be part of our solutions going forward,
and that will happen immediately.
Mr. Bilirakis. Mr. McNally.
Mr. McNally. So USA Taekwondo is one of, I believe, three
NGBs participating in the SafeSport athlete climate survey,
which is going to reach out to a select number of athletes and
get them involved.
We're also working with Fighting Spirit, which is a group
that educates on sexual misconduct and bullying, to make sure
that those athletes learn about this before they become
victims.
Mr. Bilirakis. Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis. We also engage our athletes and have an athlete
council that we are engaging with to be able to talk to them
about trying to make sure that everything is made transparent
to us.
In addition to that, we have been in constant contact with
past victims, which were part of the reason of how we were able
to be able to go and continue with the Mr. Butler case that we
were able to do.
Mr. Bilirakis. Ms. Pfohl.
Ms. Pfohl. Yes. We actually have two athletes on our
governing board, and we are also establishing a SafeSport
Champions Program where we will able to cut across all of the
sports to engage survivors, as well as those that are
passionate about preventing bullying, harassment, hazing, and
all forms of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Mr. Bilirakis. OK. Thank you.
Next question. These horrific events occurred for years
without repercussions. Unacceptable, as far as I'm concerned.
Given this sad reality, what changes has your organization
made to encourage athletes to come forward with any complaints
of abuse they have made, or they may have some complaints. What
changes have you made to encourage them to come forward?
Let's start from here.
Ms. Lyons.
Ms. Lyons. I think, first and foremost, we have to make
sure that the information on how they can come forward is made
better available. So we've made a lot of Web site and other
communications changes so that people are aware of the Center,
its role, and that it is a clear path to safe reporting. That's
item one.
We also need to ensure that the athletes can, you know,
reach out to anyone that they feel safe to discuss, and all of
us need to make ourselves more visibly available to them.
And I think that everyone on this panel believes that those
voices need to be heard and is trying to build the mechanisms
in place through either councils, working groups, surveys,
whatever it takes to get those voices better heard.
Mr. Bilirakis. How do we ensure that their actions, again,
the allegations, the victims' allegations are acted on quickly?
Quickly, if you could respond, because I don't have a lot
of time.
Ms. Perry. I think that it is really a cultural change. And
that's something that I've embarked on from day one.
And the culture has to be one where athletes feel they can
speak up. And you accomplish that through a lot of different
ways--through your structure, through your policies, through
your personnel.
But nothing replaces being there in front of the athletes.
Nothing replaces being their advocate. And as an organization,
that is something that I've dedicated my time, and, quite
frankly, the reason I took this job, so that they would know
their voice not only matters, but it's going to make a
difference in our organization going forward, a very impactful
difference.
Mr. Bilirakis. OK. And it is important, again, I'm sure you
know this, that these allegations are acted on quickly so that
we can encourage others to come forward.
So, unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time, so I have to
yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Harper. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from Michigan,
Mrs. Dingell, for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Dingell. Thank you, Chairman Harper and Ranking Member
DeGette.
Thank you for all of you being here today.
Like many of my colleagues, the Olympians represent
courage, dedication, hard work, and patriotism of our young
people, and we're not getting to talk about that today, and
they give us reason to celebrate and to support.
But Team USA is more than a competitive team. It's 13
million young athletes across our country. And like my
colleague, Mr. Walberg from Michigan, I've stood witness to the
irresponsible, despicable, unexcusable, abusive behavior that
has caused catastrophic damage to these young people in
Michigan. I've met them, these young girls.
I'm sorry, I still get upset.
I'm saddened. I'm disgusted. And I think all of us here in
a very bipartisan way want to make sure it does not happen
again.
But what's bothering me today about this hearing, and
what's bothered me about all of the studying that we've done to
date, is that it's clear that the systems designed to protect
athletes from the abusers failed.
And by the way, my colleague, Mr. Walberg, was correct that
the doctor was asked to step away, and he was very quickly back
in the room. He was told that there should be someone in the
room chaperoning him, and it didn't happen. And that is what is
just so unforgivable. Or that there were no systems in place to
begin with.
There have been far too many incidences and allegations of
sexual misconduct in sports, including allegations involving
the individuals associated with each of the national governing
bodies before us today.
And honestly, I'm not reassured by your testimony, because
I don't hear a sense of urgency. I keep hearing: Well, we're
going to do it, we're going to get to this, we're going to do
it. What is out there? Well, who are these young people that
need help that aren't getting there?
So I have some questions here. We've heard today that the
U.S. Center for SafeSport plays a key role in protecting the
athletes from abuse. Given how important this mission is, I
find it deeply concerning that apparently it took 7 years for
the U.S. Olympic Committee to get SafeSport off the ground.
In fact, as early as 2010 the U.S. Olympic Committee
Working Group for Safe Training Environments found that the
Olympic Committee must do more to take a leadership role in
protecting the athletes from abuse.
By the way, that's what you're all saying today, but you
all are ``working on it.'' And I hope that as you're working on
it, you're going to be transparent, too.
Ms. Perry, I'm glad that you're here today, but a lot of
people have been wanting to hear from you since you took the
job. You've got to be transparent with everybody.
But by 2013, the working group had concluded that the
authority to address SafeSport cases should be centralized with
the new independent entity, referring to the U.S. Center for
SafeSports.
In 2014 SafeSport was created, but was still functionally a
part of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Documents from that year
indicate that this Olympics Committee board anticipated
launching SafeSport in 2015.
In 2015 SafeSport still was not functioning as it was
intended. In fact, it was not fully operational in 2017.
Ms. Lyons, are you familiar with this timeline?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, ma'am, I am.
Mrs. Dingell. Documents provided to the committee today
suggest that a lack of funding was a major reason for the delay
in opening SafeSport. For example, a September 2015
presentation to the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors
stated that the launch of the U.S. Center for SafeSport is
contingent on raising 5 years' worth of funding.
Ms. Lyons, is it accurate that funding prevented the USOC
from launching SafeSport sooner?
Ms. Lyons. I think the answer is there was a delay. And as
we look back, that was a mistake.
We did hope for the Center, in order to be totally
independent, we had hoped very much that other sports
organizations outside of the Olympic movement would
participate. We spent a fair amount of time trying to make that
happen. It did not. In retrospect, of course, we should have
funded it sooner and got it going.
Mrs. Dingell. Why should I take confidence from what you're
saying today when you look at this timeline. And I do want to
ask questions about--there are only 14 people working there
now, with some outside consultants, and the volume of work has
got me worried, too. But you keep telling me: We're working on
it, we're setting up a study.
Is it going to take another 5 years or what we doing to
protect these young people right now so this never happens
again?
Ms. Lyons. Well, first, I appreciate your anger and
concern. And I share it. And I understand how frustrating it
must seem and how incompetent it must seem that----
Mrs. Dingell. Yes.
Ms. Lyons [continuing]. We haven't made this happen sooner.
I will tell you that at 27 out of the last 29 board meetings,
SafeSport was a topic of conversation. There was a steady march
of increasing new procedures, putting those in place, getting
all the NGBs to suddenly be required to do certain things they
had not done before. Those things all preceded the opening of
the Center.
There were many new controls that were put in place that
were progress, but not enough, albeit not enough and not fast
enough. And if we could turn back the hands of time, as the
chairman said, I certainly wish we could and make it move
faster.
Mrs. Dingell. I just hope that everybody here realizes the
time for talk is over and you need to walk your talk.
Thank you.
Mr. Harper. I want to thank each of you for being here
today. We're almost done, but I do have just in response to
some of these a little followup.
And, Ms. Perry, Dr.Burgess asked a few questions about the
abuse that had occurred at the hands of Nassar at the Karolyi
Ranch. And you stated you did not want the athletes to have to
return to such an emotionally painful place where they were
abused. And so USA Gymnastics terminated its agreement with the
Karolyi Ranch on January 18 of this year. I believe that was
definitely the right decision to make.
However, USA Gymnastics was aware of allegations against
Nassar in 2015 and made the decision to renew its contract with
the Karolyi Ranch in spring of 2017. Why was this agreement
renewed in April of 2017 despite knowing about his abuse,
sexual abuse, for years?
Ms. Perry. Chairman Harper, I can't answer that question.
It's a very important question. And, again, I think that many
of these questions hopefully will be answered through the
independent investigation with Ropes & Gray.
But what I can tell you is that that and many things that
I've done in the last 5 months have been about the athletes.
Making sure that the ranch was closed. Making sure that we set
up an athlete assistance fund for counseling and medical
services. Making sure that we had an Athlete Task Force. And
making sure they knew they had a voice with our organization
and restructuring to make sure that we had the adequate
SafeSport personnel to handle the kinds of volume that we have.
Mr. Harper. Thank you, Ms. Perry.
Ms. Lyons, was the U.S. Olympic Committee involved in the
decision to renew the contract for the Karolyi Ranch in April
of 2017?
Ms. Lyons. No. There actually are two different contracts.
The USOC had what I would call a marketing license with the
Karolyi Ranch that allows them to be designated as a training
site with the Olympic rings upon it. The actual lease of the
property was a separate agreement to the USAG.
Mr. Harper. OK. So my question was, was the USOC involved
in the decision? Was the USOC even aware of the decision to
open it back up?
Ms. Lyons. I don't know the answer to that. I would guess
they probably would have known, at least the lease was coming
due and that it might be under consideration.
We do know that they were considering buying the ranch.
Mr. Harper. And we will ask that in writing to give you an
opportunity to respond in more detail.
And then my final point is, just curious, are routine drug
screens done on the coaches? And just yes or no from each of
you.
I'll start with you, Ms. Perry.
Do you do routine--I know athletes are, you know, drug
tested. Are the coaches? Are there drug screens done on the
coaches?
Ms. Perry. I don't know the random nature of that, but I'll
find that out.
Mr. Hinchey. Not to my knowledge, but I'll find out.
Mr. McNally. I don't believe so, no.
Mr. Davis. I don't believe so, but we'll find out.
Mr. Harper. OK. You're going to find out. But just curious,
is that a problem? Would that help? Wouldn't that be a good
thing to probably do? And I would encourage you to do so.
And I'll recognize Ranking Member DeGette for her followup.
Ms. DeGette. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just want to clarify a couple of things.
The first thing is, Ms. Lyons, Mr. Carter asked you about
an article from The Washington Post quoting an email by you.
And I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to what
your entire email was, not just what Mr. Carter was badgering
you about.
Because the Washington Post story says, quote, ``Lyons
wrote a heated email to three other USOC execs, including the
then-CEO Scott Blackmun.'' Quote: ``'This sounds like the same
old BS,' she wrote.'' Quote: ``Allowing a potential sexual
predator to continue to coach without having an appropriate
investigation and conclusion is unacceptable,'' end quote.
Was that the full content of your email?
Ms. Lyons. No, there actually was more.
Ms. DeGette. There was more?
Ms. Lyons. Yes.
Ms. DeGette. Could you provide us a copy of that email if
you still have it?
Ms. Lyons. I have not been able to find it.
Ms. DeGette. OK. But do you agree that you wrote those
words?
Ms. Lyons. Yes, I absolutely did.
Ms. DeGette. Now, one other question. Actually, I wanted to
ask Ms. Pfohl about what Mr. McNally was talking about, which
is that, as I understand it, Mr. McNally, you said that there
are only certain types of misdemeanors that your organization
investigates. It would be violent ones or sexual or something
like that. Is that right?
Mr. McNally. Yes, that's correct.
Ms. DeGette. So, as a former criminal defense lawyer
myself, I will say that oftentimes more serious offenses, like
felonies, get pled down to misdemeanors, and even misdemeanors
that don't appear to be involving violence or sexual assault or
things like that.
So what I wanted to ask you, Ms. Pfohl, is does your
organization make a distinction if a complaint comes in and it
is a misdemeanor level or a felony level? Or would you
investigate the misdemeanor ones as well?
Ms. Pfohl. Thank you, ma'am.
What we're looking at is, did someone breach the SafeSport
code of conduct, which is much broader than the law.
So we let law enforcement handle law enforcement issues,
absolutely. Certainly, if someone has a criminal disposition
that plays into our investigation, obviously that would be a
breach of the SafeSport code. But what we're looking at is, did
someone breach the SafeSport code.
Ms. DeGette. So you're looking at the conduct, not
necessarily the legal disposition.
Ms. Pfohl. Correct.
Ms. DeGette. So, Mr. Chairman, I just want to make one
final statement, and that's this. I think that everybody in
this room agrees this is a terrible tragedy that happened and
we can't let it linger along--we can't let it drift along. The
organization themselves, the USOC, can't let it drift along.
We need to make sure that we actually have adequate funding
so that the Center for SafeSport can do its job. And as of
today, I have concerns about whether they have that amount of
funding given the way the number of complaints has escalated.
And so I would ask if you would consider--we'll continue to
have conversations with everybody, but if you would consider
scheduling a followup hearing, like 6 months from now, so we
can see if these things are actually being implemented.
Mr. Harper. I can assure you that the subcommittee will
stay on this issue.
Thank you, Ms. DeGette.
To those individuals in the room or who may be watching who
have been victims, I want to thank you for having the courage
to stand up and for the role that you're playing in preventing
future cases of sexual assault. We will continue this fight on
your behalf.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank our witnesses and the
Members that have participated in today's hearing. And I'll
remind Members that they have 10 business days to submit
questions for the record. And I would ask the witnesses to
promptly respond to those, if you so receive those questions.
With that, the subcommittee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:46 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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