Hands that represent USA sports organizations restrain a female athlete from gaining justice for an abuse case. Those in positions of power in these organizations must be held accountable for cases of sexual abuse within their programs and provide transparency to the public. Illustration by Antonio Starks
When addressing sexual abuse cases, national sports organizations need to focus on public awareness and transparency in order to make women’s sports safer and allow women to retain power.
With over 500 women suing USA Gymnastics by 2021 and six women in 2020 suing USA Swimming over the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations, women are left without power in the United States’ national athletic organizations as executives continue to keep cases private.
In 2016, an article that exposes the USA Gymnastics organization for its failure to report sexual abuse allegations against coaches was published by the Indianapolis Star. This lead to about 300 women publicy sharing allegations of sexual abuse against Larry Nassar, a former doctor for USA Gymnastics.
Executives of these organizations are not publicizing the sexual abuse cases and making members aware of what is going on. Without public awareness and transparency, more athletes may become victims of sexual abuse.
The process of resolving a case involves a report, then interviews, and finally, an investigation report is created and the alleged abuser and organization are notified. Not only was the USA Gymnastics case an example of the lack of accountability within these organizations, but former USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus was also accused of mishandling sexual abuse cases after they were brought to his attention, according to an article from The Orange County Register.
Following these cases, the U.S. Center for SafeSport was created on March 3, 2017. This organization was introduced in order to channel all sexual misconduct or abuse reports for the U.S. Olympic Committee organizations on a national, regional and local level.
Ultimately, SafeSport can only provide so much support when the leaders of these organizations are not handling the case within the organization on the backside after being notified, preventing women from having their case be separate from the organization that their alleged abuser is a part of.
With many of these cases, athletic directors, presidents and executives fall out of the picture through resignations or retiring, such as Michigan State University athletic director Mark Hollis and Lou Anna Simmon during the Nassar case, according to the New York Times.
With this mentality of resigning away from the problem, it becomes clear that these national organizations care more about the company’s image than their members.
By continuing to allow national sports organizations to sweep sexual assault cases away, there will only be a continued lack of power in female athletes that fuels the conditions necessary to create predators in women’s sports.
Instead, the government needs to impose harsher penalties on these organizations such as fines for not reporting their investigations. This public knowledge will hold them accountable to actually carry out the investigation rather than hide it from the public, and can help stop the cycle of sexual abuse in sports by putting everything out in the open.
With more recognition for these sports-related sexual abuse cases, women will gain more justice from their allegations and, in turn, more power. This will prevent sexual abuse relationships from being built and maintained making women’s sports nationally safer.
