Portland gym severs ties with USA Gymnastics in the wake of Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal

A Portland gymnastics facility for children said in an email Wednesday that it would be severing ties with USA Gymnastics following the sentencing of Larry Nassar, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, who was found guilty of sexually abusing young gymnasts.

In the email, Andrea Lawrence, Chief Operating Officer for The Children's Gym, wrote, "At this time, we have decided to disconnect from USA Gymnastics until they restructure their mission and priorities to meet the standard of ours."

Over the phone Thursday, Lawrence described The Children's Gym, which was started by her mother in 1984, as a "multi-sport activity center for kids."

Lawrence said because they aren't a competitive facility, the Children's Gym's membership to USA Gymnastics mainly centered around trainings. But after the Nassar scandal, Lawrence said her gym would no longer be associated with the national organization, which she said "needs a complete revamp" before she would consider rejoining.

USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for the sport of gymnastics. They sanctions competitions and select and train the U.S. Gymnastics Teams for the Olympics and World Championships.

While they do have safeguards and protocols designed to keep gymnasts safe from predators, "clearly there was a breakdown at some point," Lawrence said.

"There has to be a different governing body," she said, "because that is broken."

"I have emailed and called USA Gymnastics and asked them to revoke our membership," she said, though she hasn't heard a response yet.

According to the USA Gymnastics website, The Children's Gym is one of 20 in the Portland area that are USA Gymnastics. Many of the other gyms train athletes for competitions. For those gyms, removing themselves from USA Gymnastics is more difficult.

Nick French, general manager USA Gym Clubs in Portland said over the phone Thursday that his gym has been a member of USA Gymnastics for 19 years.

"We're a competing club," French said. "Unless the news has changed, USA Gymnastics is still the governing body for the U.S.A. Olympic Team. Unless that changes we don't have any plans to change."

"They're the only path right now to the U.S. Olympic team," French added, "in terms of local clubs."

Paul Rawlings, owner and head coach of Southern Washington Academy of Gymnastics in Vancouver, expressed a similar sentiment.

"It's a hard topic," Rawlings said. His gym has 65 competitive athletes.

"If you're going to be a gym that competes you have to be a USAG sanctioned gym. Each gymnast has to pay a membership. Each competition has to be sanctioned," he said. "All these fees go to this governing body that hasn't necessarily protected the kids the way it should have."

Rawlings doesn't agree with the way USA Gymnastics handled the Nassar case, but he believes gymnastics needs a governing body.

"I think that what we're going to do as a gymnastics community is put the pressure on them," he said. "There've been a lot of resignations already."

Rawlings said at his gym, protocols are in place that don't allow athletes to ever be alone with only one adult. Coaches can no longer text just a child. A parent must be included in those messages.

"It's all about protecting the business," he said, "and making sure that there's no gray area."

In her email, Lawrence outlined the Children's Gym's "'zero-tolerance policy' regarding any sexual misconduct or abuse," along with "policies, procedures, and staff education in place that go above and beyond industry standards."

Those include, "proper screening and background checks for staff, re-screening of ongoing employees," and "required 2 or more employees/parent during any activities."

Lawrence said over the phone that already the gym had a more detailed background check procedure than the one offered by USA Gymnastics.

"We applaud the brave women and men who have spoken up against misconduct and abuse against children," the email said. "We hope that you and your family continue to trust that we are providing a safe environment for your children."

More than 150 of Nassar's victims spoke out in victim impact statements before he was sentenced to 40 to 75 years in prison on Wednesday. Before beginning that sentence, however, Nassar will serve a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography crimes.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052
lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

Follow @lizzzyacker

Let's block ads! (Why?)