Category: safety

USA Gymnastics – real change

Most were convinced that USAG was unable / unwilling to make real changes. Until recently.

This is significant.

Nancy Armour:

Gymnasts will be required to be chaperoned by someone other than their coaches at four upcoming events …

“Each athlete will be required to have a chaperone with them, other than their coach,” Faehn wrote. “This individual can be a parent or guardian, a grandparent, another relative, etc. Each athlete and coach will be responsible for setting up their own arrangements ie. flight and hotel.”

Athletes selected for the international World Cups also will be required to bring a chaperones, though USA Gymnastics will cover their flight and hotel expenses.

“If a parent or designated guardian is not able to attend, USA Gymnastics will provide a safe sport certified female chaperone,” Faehn wrote.

The inability of parents or other chaperones to travel with their daughters was among the many criticisms leveled at USA Gymnastics by gymnasts abused by Nassar. …

USA Today

USA will not be sending gymnasts to Jesolo or Gymnix in 2018.

Dr. George Drew being investigated

Andrew Fuller accused former USA Gymnastics coach Dr. George Drew of drugging and abusing him.

USAG on Twitter. (Jan 30th)

Jessica O’Beirne – USAG Chose Medals Over Child Safety

A new way to look at the Nassar crimes and how he could conceal them for decades.

GymCastic founder Jessica O’Beirne:

No one believed the victims of Larry Nassar.

I can’t call them all survivors because not everyone survived.

No one believed the women and girls who for decades looked to adults and institutions for help ― and with the exception of three dedicated journalists at the Indianapolis Star and a few others who relentlessly beat the drum as most media ignored a sex abuse spree. …

The Nassar case isn’t only a story about a child molester. It’s a story about every person and institution that failed to stop him. …

HuffPo

Valeri Liukin has resigned

Valeri Liukin has resigned as coordinator of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. …

USA Gymnastics did not have an immediate response. …

Liukin acknowledged the turmoil was a factor in his decision to resign. …

“I was truly looking forward to trying to turn this program around and bring success to our country and the gymnastics community,” he wrote. “But the present climate causes me, and more importantly my family, far too much stress, difficulty and uncertainty.” …

USA Today

Amanda Thomashow reported Nassar to MSU in 2014

Amanda Thomashow was the first woman to file an official Title IX complaint (2014) against Nassar accusing him of violating the school’s sexual harassment policy. …

In an investigative report prepared in response to her complaint, the school’s Title IX coordinator called Nassar’s methods a “liability” that exposed patients to unnecessary trauma. But that’s not what the school told Thomashow.

We cannot find that the conduct was of a sexual nature. Thus, it did not violate the sexual harassment policy.”

MSU ultimately sided with Nassar, concluding that his methods were medically appropriate. And, according to documents obtained by CNN, MSU gave Nassar and Thomashow different versions of that investigative report. Her version did not include the Title IX coordinator’s concerns. …

She filed a complaint against Larry Nassar in 2014. Nothing happened

MSU maintains that “no official there believed Nassar committed sexual abuse until newspapers began reporting on the allegations in the summer of 2016”.

MSU bungled Amanda’s complaint, investigation and report(s) in several ways. Ways that look like a cover-up to me.

gymternet fooled by Nassar as well

Nobody has pursued ethics, safety and human rights of gymnasts more doggedly than Jessica O’Beirne, founder of GymCastic.

Many of us wait for each week’s episode to get caught up on everything that’s happened on the Nassar crimes.

Yet Jess was fooled too.

… (GymCastic) interviewed Dr. Nassar in 2013 and has left the episode up in the podcast’s archive, albeit with an altered title, “Serial Pedophile Ex-Doctor Larry Nassar Interview.” …

She agrees with Mr. Barnes and Ms. Hopkins that she, too, was “groomed” by Dr. Nassar after he became a trusted source. “In the industry you get close to sources, and I think there was a delay in reporting because there was a delay in people thinking this could be true.” …

NY Times

I can’t recall hearing a negative word about Nassar online dating back to before 2000. Until women began coming forward.

#conman

Twistars parent – not quitting

My Kid Loves Gymnastics. I Love My Kid. Now What?

Most competitive gymnasts in most clubs are training as usual. Getting ready for their upcoming competitions.

Twistars — at least for now — is no different.