August 5, 2024 - WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is renewing scrutiny of SafeSport and USA Gymnastics (USAG) following reports that neither organization is imposing necessary measures to protect athletes from alleged abusers.

“This is an affront to justice and demands immediate correction,” Grassley wrote in letters sent today to SafeSport and USAG.

Congress established SafeSport to investigate athlete abuse in Olympic governing bodies, including USAG. Both SafeSport and USAG are authorized to levy protective measures against individuals who are under investigation for physical or emotional abuse of athletes in their care. These restrictions are meant to provide separation between the alleged abuser and potential victims while an investigation is underway.

Despite having these tools at its ready disposal, SafeSport has imposed protective measures on a mere 5 percent of individuals under investigation, per its own 2023 report to Congress. USAG has similarly failed to restrict many top coaches under SafeSport investigation. 

Read Grassley’s letters to SafeSport and USAG. 

Background

Grassley was the first in history to convene a congressional hearing on athlete protections while serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also spearheaded congressional oversight of the U.S. Olympic Committee and the FBI’s failed response to the Larry Nassar abuse scandal. As the committee’s ranking member, he welcomed survivors to share their stories before Congress. At that hearing, USAG Olympic champion Aly Raisman testified:

“I don’t like SafeSport. I hear from many survivors that they report their abuse and it’s like playing hot potato, where someone else kicks it over to someone else and they don’t hear back for a really long time… [SafeSport’s] priority doesn’t seem to be [the] safety and well-being of athletes.”

Grassley has worked hard to secure reforms in order to prevent other young athletes from suffering similar abuse. Several Grassley-led measures to strengthen accountability for abusers were signed into law in 2020. And, at the end of last year, his bipartisan legislation to bolster the federal sex tourism statutes that had been too weak to convict Nassar was signed into law as part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
Source: Senator Chuck Grassley