"U.S. Senate Committee Hearing Focuses On SafeSport"
It is a headline by The Sports Examiners, which released the news story below at 12:14 am (Pacific time).
In an 80-minute hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) essentially summarized the program in her opening statement:
“The mental-health epidemic in this country, coupled with the increasing reports of abuse of athletes, demands that SafeSport get busy, get your act together and live up to your mission.”
This was essentially a re-hash of the September 2023 hearing of the Commission on the State of the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics, with Co-Chair Dionne Koller explaining:
“Our Commission carried out the most comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Movement and its governance ever undertaken. Ours was the first independent governmental and bipartisan commission tasked with evaluating this Movement broadly in more than four decades. …
“The findings we shared demonstrate the urgent need for systemic reforms if our nation is to make Movement sports safer, more equitably accessible and better accountable to the public it serves.”
As was the case in the Commission hearing, the U.S. Center for SafeSport chief executive, Ju’Riese Colon (pictured above) ,was the central witness and said that new procedures to help streamline its procedures are being announced in the next week or so and would be implemented by 1 April. She admitted that improvement is needed, caused in part by the exponentially-expanding workload:
“When the Center opened our doors seven years ago, we were faced with a daunting task, to undue years of inaction. … Our work has been a catalyst for culture change.
“Reports of abuse and misconduct have increased by more than 2,000% since opening. People are coming forward with their stories, because they know the Center is a resource to them. In our first year, we received roughly 300 reports; last year, we received 7,500, and to date, the Center has received more than 25,000 reports of abuse and misconduct.
“The names of more than 2,000 individuals are now listed on our Centralized Disciplinary Database. It’s a first-of-its-kind resource, listing individuals who have been restricted or banned from sport, which any parent, local sports league, youth service organization or employer can easily access from our Web site.
“And we’ve delivered more than five million trainings to more than 2 1/2 million participants in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement.”
But she also recognized the situation:
“We are very clear-eyed about why we are here today. … We know change is necessary and are ready to make improvements, particularly as it relates to timeliness of investigations, communication and trauma sensitivity. …
“We must continue to listen and to evolve. We pledge to continue to seek athlete input, and keep Congress and the public informed. This is an inflection point for the Center, and for the entire U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Movement.”
Colon finished her statement with the expected request for more money, but also what that money will buy:
“Increased resources are necessary to these efforts. We expect reports to continue to grow exponentially, especially as new sports such as flag football and lacrosse have a potential to add more than a million individuals to the Movement.
“With additional resources, the Center will move forward with setting maximum ceilings on timeframes for case resolutions, as well as add additional investigative staff to meet the growing demand.”
Grace French, a Larry Nassar abuse survivor and founder of The Army of Survivors, touched on the main athlete complaints about SafeSport:
“The bottom line is SafeSport does not have the trust and respect of athletes, coaches, families or sports communities. For some athletes, reporting to SafeSport can be a first step to healing and accountability, but from our experience, no athlete has seen the Center that way. …
“My primary concern lies in the re-traumatization of survivors of sexual abuse within the SafeSport process. These survivors have been disregarded, hushed through non-disclosure agreements and subjected to excessively lengthy investigations, some lasting years.
“Second, SafeSport must increase transparency of its process and improve communication. SafeSport arbitrarily closes cases without providing details to survivors, and retaining jurisdiction even after closure. This hinders external investigations and accountability.”
USA Hockey Executive Director Pat Kelleher, also the head of the U.S. NGB Council, expressed the concerns of the National Governing Bodies, whose programs are where problems can begin:
● “We believe that all youth sporting organizations should be subject to the same standards NGBs are required to have in place, including background screens, SafeSport training, mandatory reporting and monitoring and auditing of their programs to ensure compliance.”
● “The reason we are all here is because our greater sporting community, including the NGBs, have lost faith that the Center will timely, promptly and fairly resolve cases of misconduct.”
● “As the federal government has mandated the operation of the Center, we firmly believe the Center should be federally funded, subject to Congressional oversight.”
Kelleher suggested changes so that SafeSport would be “exercising jurisdiction only over the most egregious cases that require Center involvement,” significantly improve its communications and transparency, and reach “a decision on the merits for every case for which it accepts jurisdiction, which would reduce the number of administrative closures and free up the Center’s resources to address the most serious cases.”
But he was also clear that “anything sexual in nature, needs to go to the Center.”
Colon, French and Kelleher all testified at the Commission hearing last September.
Koller also promoted other aspects of the Commission report, such as independent funding for the Team USA Athletes’ Commission, and removing coordination of youth sport from the responsibility of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the U.S. National Governing Bodies, but these drew no interest from the senators.
Note: Look at “these drew no interest from the senators.”
On Thursday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will have a hearing on “Timeout: Evaluating Safety Measures Implemented to Protect Athletes” at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
As of 4:15 am. (Eastern Time), no other media had published an article about yesterday’s Senate hearing.
I am tipping my Deaflympics cap to Editor Rich Perelman for listening to the hearing via YouTube and writing it down for all of us.
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