Lawmakers used an emotionally charged House subcommittee hearing to get answers about what they portrayed as the US Olympic Committee’s slow-moving, underfunded response to a steadily widening sex-abuse scandal in Olympic sports.
CEO Shellie Pfohl of the US Center for SafeSport spoke Wednesday during a hearing that had one representative choking back tears and another screaming at the witnesses.
Buddy Carter, a Republican congressman from Georgia, berated USOC CEO Susanne Lyons and USA Gymnastics CEO and president Kerry Perry even though both are new to their current roles.
Pfohl told lawmakers that when the office opened in 2017, it received 20 to 30 calls a month. She said in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Larry Nassar sentencing, it’s increased to 20 to 30 per week.
Despite the widening workload, the center has only 12 investigators and operates on an annual budget of $4.3m.
Pfohl said she’s always in search of more money. Lyons, who was named acting CEO of the USOC in March, conceded seven years was too long to get the center up and running.
Perry, who was installed as chief executive of USA Gymnastics in December, apologized to the hundreds of women and girls who were sexually abused by Nassar, the longtime team physician who worked with the team at four Olympics.
“First, I want to apologize to all who were were harmed by the horrific acts of Larry Nassar,” Perry said. “Let there be no mistake, those days are over.”
She was joined by the top executives from the national governing bodies of swimming, taekwondo and volleyball at the hearing looking into whether they have done enough to protect their athletes from abusers.
