RIO DE JANEIRO — The U.S. ladies’s gymnastics workforce has been in Brazil for greater than every week, absolutely acclimated to a every day routine of coaching, napping, consuming within the athletes’ cafeteria, napping, coaching, consuming and going to mattress.
The 5 Olympians, who vary in age from 16 to 22, haven’t any time of their strictly supervised schedule for sightseeing, simply as they haven’t any room of their extremely disciplined minds to absorb all that swirls round them — the stakes of the 2016 Rio Games, the close to common expectation that they’ll win workforce gold, and the controversy that shrouds their sport following an Indianapolis Star report detailing USA Gymnastics’ failure to confront sexual abuse by predatory coaches on the grass-roots degree.
“They don’t need any distractions right now,” defined Aimee Boorman, coach of three-time world champion Simone Biles and head coach of the U.S. ladies’s group, when requested concerning the gymnasts’ consciousness of the difficulty.
[Allegations of widespread sexual abuse put USA Gymnastics under fire]
Instead, Boorman and U.S. nationwide workforce Martha Karolyi regularly remind the gymnasts that they’re ready. Their routines are etched in muscle-reminiscence. And there’s nothing out of the peculiar about Rio regardless of the huge street closures, safety presence and fireworks that may mild the night time sky at Opening Ceremonies.
“We just talk about everything being normal,” Boorman stated after Thursday’s coaching session at Rio Olympic Arena. “They do these routines thousands of times; their skills, over and over again. My job right now is to keep them focused on what they’ve been doing and keep them in a positive frame of mind.”
On Friday, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun characterised the newspaper’s recounting of sexual abuse on the grassroots degree of ladies’s gymnastics, which included molestation, inappropriate touching and secret videotaping of bare beneath-aged gymnasts, as “horrific” and voiced sympathy for the victims.
Blackmun harassed the group’s dedication to athletes’ security, pointing to a Center for Safe Sport that the USOC unveiled amid nice fanfare in 2014 however has but to launch. But he stated the USOC didn’t intend to examine the incidents, which finally landed 4 perpetrators in jail (one of whom dedicated suicide whereas incarcerated).
“We couldn’t possibly get in the business of investigating allegations of misconduct in 47 different NGBs (national governing bodies),” Blackmun stated, including that the USOC had a “pretty state-of-the-art policy” relating to abuse and misconduct.
Blackmun defended USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny, who acknowledged in a deposition cited by the Star that his group didn’t alert law enforcement to allegations of sexual abuse until they have been lodged by a sufferer or sufferer’s father or mother, treating all else as “hearsay.”
Blackmun stated the USOC’s coverage is to instantly report any credible suggestion of sexual abuse to law enforcement authorities, provided that they’ve professional investigative powers. But he defended USA Gymnastics’ failure to achieve this beneath Penny and his predecessor, giving no indication that Penny’s job is in jeopardy.
“I think the way USA Gymnastics and many other NGBs, not just USA Gymnastics, may have dealt with this 15 years ago is very different than what we feel is appropriate way to deal with it today,” Blackmun stated. ““I think if you look at the different approaches people took in 2000 versus what we are all doing today, I think we would all say the best practice today is to refer to law enforcement.”
None of the episodes of abuse recounted within the newspaper’s investigation includes present or former Olympic gymnasts or coaches.
But they increase disturbing questions concerning the judgment of USA Gymnastics and the group’s priorities — seemingly valuing the coaches’ reputations over the security of younger athletes within the Olympic pipeline.
Without that pipeline — an enormous community of gymnastics faculties and academies throughout the nation that yr after yr produce a whole lot if not hundreds of Olympic prospects — the United States would have by no means been in a position to overtake the Soviets and Romanians these final 20 years because the world’s dominant drive in ladies’s gymnastics.
From that nationwide pipeline a small proportion of hopefuls rise by way of the aggressive ranks to attain elite standing. A choose few are invited to periodic nationwide coaching camps simply north of Houston, the place they’re evaluated and finally culled for Olympic obligation.
[From Greece to Rio: A brief history of the Olympic Games]
The greatest amongst them — Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian — are right here in Rio, ready for his or her aggressive debut in Sunday’s qualifying rounds.
Not permitted to march in Opening Ceremonies so as to save their legs, they’ll collect as a workforce to watch the festivities on tv. Apart from their 90-seconds competing on every equipment, that’s how the 2016 U.S. Olympic ladies’s gymnastics group does the whole lot, collectively, like members of a wee sorority.
They’ve provide you with a group nickname collectively — one thing analogous to the “Magnificent Seven” that gained gold on the 1996 Atlanta Games and the victorious “Fierce Five” of London 2012 — however have made a pact not to inform anybody till after the staff finals are contested.
They met Usain Bolt in athletes’ cafeteria collectively, though some dealt with the joys with extra poise than others, Biles confides. And they get dolled up earlier than competitions collectively.
“We’re very excited to put on our leos and do our hair and makeup together,” Biles says, “because it’s something we like to do and be girly!”
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