Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to 10 charges of sexual assault. USA TODAY Sports
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun has called on the entire USA Gymnastics board of directors to resign and promised an independent investigation into how former national team doctor Larry Nassar was allowed to abuse athletes over the course of two decades.
In an open letter released on Wednesday, Blackmun apologized to the women and girls Nassar abused, saying, “The Olympic family is among those that have failed you.”
The USOC released the letter shortly after Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison on seven sexual assault charges in a Michigan court. As part of his sentencing, 156 women and girls gave impact statements about their abuse over the past week.
“The purpose of this message is to tell all of Nassar’s victims and survivors, directly, how incredibly sorry we are,” Blackmun wrote. “We have said it in other contexts, but we have not been direct enough with you. We are sorry for the pain caused by this terrible man, and sorry that you weren’t afforded a safe opportunity to pursue your sports dreams.”
In his letter, Blackmun said the USOC would launch an investigation “by an independent third party to examine how an abuse of this proportion could have gone undetected for so long. We need to know when complaints were brought forward and to who.”
Blackmun said the results of the investigation would be made public.
Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber are among those who said Nassar, who was also a Michigan State physician, sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment.
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In their statements, the women repeatedly criticized USA Gymnastics and the USOC for not doing enough to protect athletes from abuse. Raisman has been the most pointed, saying in court last week that USA Gymnastics was an organization “rotting from the inside,” and calling out the USOC for its lack of public support.
In a statement on Monday, Raisman called for an independent investigation and wrote, "For the past week, survivors came forward to courageously face a perpetrator of evil and to share their painful stories," Raisman wrote. "Many of them, myself included, claim the USOC is also at fault. Was the USOC there to 'focus on supporting the brave survivors'? No. Did they issue any statement then? Crickets."
Blackmun also called on the entire USA Gymnastics board of directors to resign.
Following criticism from the women in court, USA Gymnastics announced on Monday that chairman Paul Parilla, vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley submitted their resignations.
That decision came more than a week after Blackmun and USOC chairman Larry Probst had called Parilla to USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 11 and told him he needed to resign, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting who are not authorized to discuss it because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Blackmun also said the USOC has considered decertifying USA Gymnastics as the national governing body for the sport. That would mean the USOC would take over the federation while it undergoes restructuring.
“We believe it would hurt more than help the athletes in their sport,” he wrote. “But we will pursue decertification if USA Gymnastics does not fully embrace the necessary changes in their governance structure along with other mandated changes under review right now.”
The USOC is among the defendants in at least two lawsuits tied to Nassar’s abuse, along with USA Gymnastics, Michigan State and Twistars, the Lansing gym where he served as team doctor.
After a review of USA Gymnastics, former federal prosecutor Deborah Daniels said the organization needed a “complete cultural change” and made 70 recommendations. While USA Gymnastics’ board was quick to accept all of the recommendations, it has been slow to implement them.
Before the leadership of the board of directors resigned this week, former CEO and president Steve Penny had been the only USA Gymnastics official held publicly accountable. He was forced to resign in March under pressure from the USOC.
And despite repeated calls from athletes to stop holding training camps at the Karolyi ranch, where Nassar abused some of his victims, USA Gymnastics did not terminate its agreement until last Thursday. That was four days after Biles acknowledged she, too, had been abused by Nassar and said she was further traumatized at the thought of going back to the ranch.
But even then the federation found itself on the defensive after the Indianapolis Star reported it still planned to hold trials for the acro world championships there next month. USA Gymnastics announced Friday that the trials would be relocated.
Blackmun wrote that the USOC has been in discussions with USA Gymnastics leadership since October on how to change the culture of the sport.
“Further changes are necessary to help create a culture that fosters safe sport practice, offers athletes strong resources in education and reporting, and ensures the healing of the victims and survivors. This includes a full turnover of leadership from the past, which means that all current USAG directors must resign.”
Nassar became USA Gymnastics’ team physician in 1996, and has acknowledged abusing athletes under the guise of medical treatment. He was dismissed by the federation in July 2015, after a coach overheard athletes talking about the abusive procedure and became concerned.
But USA Gymnastics did not notify the FBI for five weeks, conducting its own investigation first. Even after it turned the case over to the FBI, it did not notify Michigan State or authorities in Michigan, despite knowing that Nassar was still working there.
The allegations against Nassar became public in August 2016, when Rachel Denhollander contacted the Indianapolis Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, and said she’d been abused by Nassar. That led to dozens more accusations, along with the revelation that athletes had reported Nassar to Michigan State as early as 1997.
Before Wednesday’s hearing, Nassar, 54, had already been sentenced to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges.