USA Gymnastics has been hammered during the last 24 months from all sides as the organization has had to deal with multiple claims of sexual abuse, most of which stemmed from the Larry Nassar scandal.
Nassar who was a team doctor at USA Gymnastics was found to have carried out rampant sexual abuse on young gymnasts who were sent to him for care. USA Gymnastics has been reeling from this scandal which forced their former CEO and president Kerry Perry to resign. The interim CEO Mary Bono held on to the post for 2 months before resigning as it was too much to handle.
The US Olympic Committee (USOC) appears to have had enough with USA Gymnastics and has issued an ultimatum to the organization to voluntarily surrender its status or be prepared for the USOC to take action. USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland stated there were too many issues that USA Gymnastics needed to deal with and sort out and that was very difficult to do in its current form.
USA Gymnastics responded to the ultimatum by stating that they were looking at what was the best way forward for the organization, athletes, staff and members of the organization. No decision has been made yet and there were no indications as to whether USA Gymnastics would challenge the ultimatum issued by USOC.
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The big concern and obvious question that arises from this move is what would happen to the athletes should USA Gymnastics surrender its status and become decertified.
In a statement, Hirshland said
While each of you has overcome adversity in different ways, some facing unimaginably terrible situations, everyone now faces the difficult reality of belonging to a national organization that continues to struggle to change its culture, to rebuild its leadership and to effectively serve its membership. You deserve better
Hirshland assured USA Gymnastic athletes that while the USOC pushes forward with the decertification of the organization, nothing would change for the athletes and they would be able to train and take part in competitions as usual.
The news to decertify USA Gymnastics has been welcomed by the legal team which represented former Team USA and Olympic gymnasts who were victims to Larry Nassar. Investigations revealed that USA Gymnastics head Steve Penny had deliberately removed documents pertaining to the Nassar sexual molestation case from the USA Gymnastics Texas training facility.
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