The U.S. Center for SafeSport has once again been the subject of controversy due to the storm created by former Olympic dancer MyKayla Skinner’s YouTube rant next week.
In Skinner’s since-deleted videos, the 2020 vault gold medalist criticized the work attitude of the latest generation of Team USA athletes and attributed SafeSport, a regulatory body authorized by Congress, for making coaches too frightened to properly train world-class athletes.
” Because of SafeSport”, Skinner said,” coaches ca n’t get on athletes. They have to be very cautious with what they say, which is in some ways truly great but also requires a little aggressive and intense gymnastics to get where they need to be.

Skinner’s feedback drew sharp and large criticism from both gymnasts and performer advocates. In a Threads article that appeared to relate to Skinner, Simone Biles wrote:” no everyone needs a device and a platform”.
In an effort to lessen the discussion, Skinner later removed the picture and took to social press to move up or describe her remarks.
In a post on X, past Olympic gymnast Rachael Denhollander, who was the first of Nassar’s patients to go public, called out Skinner’s certain censure of SafeSport, saying that it was advancing an explanation that “winning is for abuse”.
But Skinner is not alone in her advice that SafeSport—long condemned for being too lenient with harsh coaches—has overcorrected.
” The reaction to Ms. Skinner’s remarks is natural, but I am compassionate to one place she was attempting to make”, said Florida attorney Russell Prince, who is already representing plaintiffs in three distinct claims. Because the controlling regulations at both organizations mandate that tutoring do get evaluated on an objective standard, coaches are rightly afraid of the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Gymnastics.
SafeSport, which did not respond to a request for comment, was established in 2017 through bipartisan legislation signed into law by therefore President Donald Trump, as a direct reaction to the Nassar incident. The unique task of the center was to investigate allegations of sexual abuse committed against sports during the US Olympic Movement and to impose sanctions or restrictions on those who committed it.
Over day, SafeSport’s authority was expanded to include other types of performer abuse, including emotional and physical.
According to its 2023 monthly statement, which was released last month, SafeSport received 15, 631 misuse claims between 2021- 23, of which 5, 879 dealt with emotional/physical do compared to 3, 660 which addressed sexual wrongdoing.
According to Prince,” The Center has proven capable of impartially investigating and deciding allegations of coaching misconduct.” In all cases where there is n’t a clear conflict of interest, complaints arising from sport-specific coaching decisions should be handled by the national governing bodies. Unfortunately, the Center is still putting up a lot of physical and emotional misbehavior cases while failing to properly and proper research and resolve sexual misbehavior cases, once failing both victims and respondents.

SafeSport has faced criticism for letting instructors off easy for the majority of its eight-year story. A 2020 review by the U. S. Government Accountability Office found that, over a one- time period, the core imposed sanctions in 262 out of 2, 460 circumstances it had “resolved”. A number of situations in which SafeSport permitted sequential sexual abusers to return to training without a blip in their official records wereuncovered in an 18-month investigation by ESPN and ABC News in 2022.
Earlier this year, the Commission on the State of U. S. Olympics and Paralympics called focus to SafeSport’s “many inadequacies” in a 277- page document analyzing USOPC management. According to the committee, the inadequacies of SafeSport—which included its economic rely on USOPC, massive case delay, and “policy of closing several cases administratively” —explained why “many athletes continue to hold little faith in the system meant to protect them against abuse”.
A small but growing chorus of voices is now joining that well-known criticism in advocating that SafeSport as well as other athletes need to be protected from abuse.
Alexis Moore, a former Nassar abuse victim who now teaches gymnastics and competitive dance in Michigan, is one of Prince’s clients. After being placed on probation for alleged physical and emotional misconduct, Moore and her mother Nanci filed a federal lawsuit against SafeSport in July. SafeSport later reduced the mother- daughter duo’s penalties, but by then, their lawsuit claims, the reputational damage had already been done.
” Alexis was abused for 10 years by Dr. Nassar, and she and her family endured the civil and criminal process that followed”, the lawsuit stated. They have been hurt by the very organization that is supposed to support people in sport, they have said.
Roger Walker, the head of New Jersey’s gymnastics, filed a lawsuit against SafeSport and USA Gymnastics in April after receiving a three-month suspension for being emotional on the eve of Regional Championships. Through a four-year investigation that resulted in” the equivalent of an irretrievable business death sentence,” Walker claimed in his lawsuit filed in federal court that SafeSport was a “predator rather than protector.”
Walker claims that the United States Congress established the U.S. Center for SafeSport as a body established to protect amateur athletes from abuse by upholding legal standards. In practice, however, SafeSport routinely issues sanctions and sentences without any pre- deprivation hearing”.
SafeSport has defended itself in court as having “absolute immunity” from having its eligibility rulings judicially reviewed.
In a November motion to dismiss the Moores ‘ lawsuit, SafeSport stated that membership in the Olympic and Paralympic Movement is a “privilege and not a right.” The Center has the exclusive authority that Congress has granted to the Center regarding an individual’s eligibility to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic Movement.
Whether that argument ultimately prevails in court, it has yet to stem the tide of litigation. Prince stated that he intends to bring three more lawsuits against SafeSport in the coming months. The trial lawyer contends that SafeSport’s assertion that its clients are doing too much is not compatible with those of others who claim SafeSport has n’t accomplished nearly enough.
” Our athletes, coaches, and participants desperately need the U. S. Center for SafeSport to work and protect our communities”, Prince said. ” Currently, it does n’t, and it is n’t improving. Beyond the Center being a paper tiger or a rudderless ship, the issues are significant. They are extensive and systemic, and if they are to survive, they will require that the entire organization be reorganized.
SafeSport is arguing for the time being that it needs to expand at least budget-wise. In response to the organization’s most recent annual report, the organization advocated for an additional$ 10 million in annual funding as a result of the country’s continuing rise in abuse cases.