Olympic commission to suggest major changes for athlete safety

The system for safeguarding athletes in the U.S. Olympic movement might be on the cusp of a major revamp, with an independent commission set to propose sweeping changes and lawmakers saying they are standing by to act.

The congressionally appointed commission has finished its two-year study of how the system has worked and is set to publish its findings this spring. The commission's two co-chairs told ESPN that they will make recommendations on at least three major issues: the scope of the U.S. Olympic system's governing body, which spans elite Olympic athletes and youth sports; athlete representation in decision-making positions throughout sports institutions; and the frequent concerns they heard about the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

They called their work a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to "reconceptualize" how amateur sports are organized.

"It will be up to Congress to take the next steps, which we hope will include new legislation based on our recommendations," the commission's co-chairs, Dionne Koller and Han Xiao, said in written answers to questions from ESPN.

Several members of Congress have already told ESPN that they are eager to craft legislation with the aim of protecting America's athletes.

On the heels of major sexual abuse cases in Olympic sports, Congress passed a pair of laws in 2017 and 2020 that empowered SafeSport, a nonprofit based in Denver, with the sole authority to adjudicate complaints of sexual abuse and other misconduct for all sports that fall under the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's purview. Since then, the 7-year-old organization has struggled to gain the trust of athletes.

In February 2022, ESPN published an 18-month investigation that painted a portrait of an organization hampered by legal setbacks, disputes over transparency and lingering questions about its independence. At the time, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who co-authored the 2020 law, said that if SafeSport didn't improve, they would change its rules or leadership.

Blumenthal told ESPN this week that SafeSport is "still falling undeniably short" and that Congress must consider reforms.

"A lack of communication, particularly with survivors, paired with slow response and resolution times have led athletes to lose trust in the Center -- and that lack of trust has a material impact on the Center's ability to do its job and keep abusers out of sport," Blumenthal said in a statement to ESPN. "... I look forward to urgently proposing and enacting these changes -- anything less is unacceptable."

Other lawmakers have expressed interest in making holistic changes to amateur sports, where they say the culture has allowed abuse to flourish. Koller, the director of the University of Baltimore Center for Sport and the Law, and Xiao, a former chairman of the USOPC's Athletes' Advisory Council, share the belief in bigger changes, calling SafeSport "just one piece of the puzzle."

"SafeSport's mission is fantastic, [but] it's an almost impossible mission," Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) told ESPN last week. "This organization is seen as the solution to a problem and culture that haven't been dealt with ever before."

Ross, who has spoken to a number of athletes since becoming aware of abuses in soccer that were based partially in her district, said her office hopes to introduce legislation within the next few months.

"We're very aware [the commission has] been working on this and very eager to see the results of their report," she said.

Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who started working on athlete abuse solutions in the aftermath of the Larry Nassar case, published a letter earlier this month addressing all 50 national governing bodies in the Olympic movement. Peters told them he was concerned that SafeSport "is not fully realizing its mission to address and prevent abuse and misconduct" and asked the governing bodies for feedback.

Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the USOPC, and Ju'Riese Colon, CEO of SafeSport, declined to be interviewed. A spokesperson for the USOPC said it would be premature to make any comments before seeing the commission's completed work.

Hilary Nemchik, a spokeswoman from SafeSport, said the organization recognizes it has room to improve and plans to introduce changes in the near future.

"Over the past six months, the center has been engaged in a thorough review of its response and resolution processes," Nemchik said. "Using the feedback provided by athletes and other stakeholders in the movement, the center will begin rolling out several new process changes within the coming months aimed at continued and increased fairness, timeliness of investigations, and trauma sensitivity."

The commission's study included hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, The commission surveyed more than 3,000 people involved in sports -- such as athletes, parents, coaches and governing body leaders, and the co-chairs' responses to ESPN are their first public comments since completing the review. 

While SafeSport was only one part of the commission's broad mandate, the commission's research showed the abuse watchdog's performance was a primary concern for athletes, coaches and administrators involved in Olympic sports. According to the survey results, obtained by ESPN, only 32% of respondents found SafeSport to be "extremely effective" or "very effective."

The commission's analysis of separate focus groups found that "most insiders labeled the Center for SafeSport a failure." The athletes, parents and coaches interviewed in those focus groups said they were concerned about the length of time it takes for cases to be resolved, as well as SafeSport's independence, lack of transparency and unwillingness to collaborate to make improvements to the first-of-its-kind attempt to police abuse in sports.

The co-chairs of the commission told ESPN that they faced "challenges with transparency and accountability" that "at times, made our work more difficult." Koller and Xiao declined to elaborate. A different member of the commission, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retribution, told ESPN that SafeSport "fell short" in responding to requests for information, did not respond to some requests and "resisted oversight from a statutorily established, bipartisan commission."

Nemchik disputed that characterization, saying SafeSport "responded with care and diligence" to the commission's requests and calling any claims that it wasn't cooperative "untrue and disappointing."

Other advocates and athletes say they also have received defensive responses when trying to suggest changes to SafeSport's processes. Mana Shim, a professional soccer player who has stepped away from the game to focus on reforming SafeSport, said she believes Congress will need to force change if the organization is going to improve.

Shim said she attended more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill in the past year to push for lawmakers to hold SafeSport more accountable.

She said she had a negative experience with SafeSport after she and a teammate from the NWSL's Portland Thorns shared details about alleged abuse by coach Paul Riley in a 2021 story published in The Athletic. Riley has been temporarily suspended from coaching, and his case remains unresolved two years later.

Shim said she accepted the role as chair of U.S. Soccer's newly formed Participant Safety Task Force after other athletes contacted her to say they had similar experiences when they reported abuse to SafeSport.

"I obviously had a slightly different case because it was so public and the coach was so high-profile, but we still were like, OK, well, SafeSport is supposed to handle this, and it doesn't look like they're doing a good job," Shim said.

Other members of U.S. Soccer met with SafeSport in January 2023 to discuss concerns about the organization's processes that came to light in the aftermath of the accusations against Riley. Alison Kocoras, the U.S. Soccer vice president in charge of safeguarding and athletes welfare, attended the meeting and said it was cordial but that she felt SafeSport officials were defensive and unwilling to adapt.

"We left that meeting thinking, OK, we're going to move forward with an effort on the Hill to try to get the law changed," Kocoras said. "If we can't convince the center, we're going to convince Congress that these processes need to change."

In July, the U.S. Soccer Athletes Council wrote a letter to Congress detailing its concerns with SafeSport, which were also largely outlined in a 2022 report written by former deputy attorney general Sally Yates about abuse in women's soccer. Those concerns included the rate at which SafeSport resolves cases using "administrative closures" -- a measure that neither sanctions an accused party nor clears them of any wrongdoing; SafeSport's exclusive jurisdiction, which prevents groups such as U.S. Soccer from conducting their own investigations or issuing their own sanctions; and SafeSport's appeals process, which has at times allowed alleged serial abusers to return to their sports.

SafeSport shared data with ESPN that shows, from its inception through the end of 2022, the organization resolved 4,800 of its 12,751 cases (38%) via administrative closures. The organization found SafeSport violations in 1,720 of cases. In 5,330 (42%) of cases, SafeSport says it didn't have jurisdiction to investigate.

Nemchik said SafeSport uses administrative closures to preserve the ability to reopen a case if more evidence or witnesses become available. She said that while national governing bodies cannot investigate on their own, they do have some remedies to protect athletes, such as safety plans, employment decisions and the authority to refuse to renew an individual's membership.

"While we value the perspective of NGBs, it doesn't change the fact that the center was established to do a job that they could not," Nemchik said. "It's the reason we opened our doors. Congress authorized the center's exclusive jurisdiction over sexual misconduct because NGBs had historically failed at addressing the problem."

Kocoras and Shim said while they have seen some improvements in SafeSport's willingness to engage in recent months, they are bothered by a consistent assumption that no one within the NGB structures can be trusted to help solve what all agree is a complicated problem.

SafeSport, NGBs and lawmakers appear to agree more when it comes to rethinking the way SafeSport is funded. Federal law mandates that the USOPC provide $20 million to SafeSport each year. In 2022, ESPN reported that the USOPC collects some of that money from its national governing bodies based on the number and complexity of SafeSport cases that emerge from their sport each year, a levy called a "high use contribution." Several athletes and other advocates have expressed concerns that this could incentivize sport leaders to avoid reporting issues to SafeSport in hopes of saving money.

Nemchik said SafeSport suggested the USOPC collect SafeSport-related fees based only on the size of an NGB's membership. Both Blumenthal and Ross said that SafeSport likely needs more funding to be successful, and Ross said Congress should consider providing federal dollars to help avoid potential conflicts of interest.

"Most do not wish to see [SafeSport] dismantled," Koller and Xiao said. "There have been positive efforts on the part of SafeSport's leadership and an openness to change, and we've encountered a broad desire to set SafeSport on a better path forward, not to go back to the drawing board and design a new institution in its place."