An IndyStar investigation uncovered multiple examples of children suffering the consequences, including a Georgia case in which a coach preyed on young female athletes for seven years after USA Gymnastics dismissed the first of four warnings about him.
In a 2013 lawsuit filed by one of that coach's victims, two former USA Gymnastics officials admitted under oath that the organization routinely dismissed sexual abuse allegations as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or victim's parent.
Legal experts and child advocates expressed alarm about that approach, saying the best practice is to report every allegation to authorities. Laws in every state require people to report suspected child abuse.
"USAG failed at this," said Lisa Ganser, whose daughter filed the Georgia lawsuit, which is still being argued. "USA Gymnastics had enough information, I think, to have done something about this. It didn't have to happen to my daughter, and it didn't have to happen to other little girls."
USA Gymnastics, the sport's national governing body, develops the U.S. Olympic team and promotes the industry at all levels. Its members include more than 121,000 athletes and 3,000 gyms. The organization touts itself as a "big time brand" with sponsors such as AT&T and Hershey's. After the Rio Olympics, which start this week, its premier athletes will be showcased on a 36-city Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions, a one-two punch of publicity that typically prompts a membership surge at gyms.
USA Gymnastics would not disclose the total number of sexual misconduct allegations it receives each year. But records show the organization compiled complaint dossiers on more than 50 coaches and filed them in a drawer in its executive office in Indianapolis. The contents of those files remain secret, hidden under seal in the case filed by Ganser's daughter. IndyStar, as part of the USA TODAY Network, filed a motion seeking to make the files public. The judge in that case has not yet ruled.
But even without access to those files, IndyStar tracked down four cases in which USA Gymnastics was warned of suspected abuse by coaches but did not initiate a report to authorities.
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- VIDEO: Survivors and families tell how coaches were protected
- VIDEO: Former gymnast: "USAG is not transparent"
- How IndyStar investigated USA Gymnastics
- How to protect your child from sexual predators
Those coaches went on, according to police and court records, to abuse at least 14 underage gymnasts after the warnings:
- USA Gymnastics received a detailed complaint in 2011 about Marvin Sharp, who was named 2010 national Women's Coach of the Year. It described inappropriate touching of minors and warned that he shouldn't be around children. Four years later, USA Gymnastics reported Sharp to police — but only after it was confronted with another disturbing allegation about him. This one led to Sharp being accused of touching a gymnast's vagina, trimming her pubic hair and taking sexually explicit pictures of her beginning when she was 12 years old. Shortly after he was charged in federal court in Indianapolis last year, he killed himself in jail.
- USA Gymnastics had compiled a thick file of complaints about coach Mark Schiefelbein years before he was charged with molesting a Tennessee girl when she was 10 years old. The girl's family contacted police in 2002. Schiefelbein penetrated her with his finger multiple times, according to police records. He also videotaped her exposed vagina for what he called "training purposes, so he would know where not to touch her." The girl's family was shocked to discover the history of complaints against Schiefelbein, which came to light only after prosecutors subpoenaed records from USA Gymnastics. A jury in Williamson County, Tennessee, convicted him in 2003 of seven counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. He is serving a 36-year prison sentence.
- USA Gymnastics had a sexual misconduct complaint file on James Bell at least five years before his 2003 arrest for molesting three young gymnasts in Rhode Island. It's unclear what allegations were contained in that file. But IndyStar found prior police reports on Bell in Oregon. In 1990, an underage gymnast told police that Bell had climbed on top of her and told her he wanted to take off her pants. In 1991, a 10-year-old gymnast said Bell stuck his hand inside her shirt and pinched her breast. Bell wasn't charged and continued coaching until his former employer reported him to police in Middletown, Rhode Island. He went on the run in 2004 and wasn't rearrested until last year. Bell pleaded guilty in December in Newport County, Rhode Island, to three counts of child molestation and is serving eight years in prison.
- USA Gymnastics received at least four complaints about coach William McCabe as early as 1998. One gym owner warned the organization in 1998 that McCabe "should be locked in a cage before someone is raped." USA Gymnastics never reported the allegations to police and, according to federal authorities, he began molesting an underage girl in 1999. McCabe continued to coach children for nearly seven more years, until Lisa Ganser went to the FBI with concerns about emails to her then-11-year-old daughter. McCabe was charged with molesting gymnasts, secretly videotaping girls changing clothes and posting their naked pictures on the internet. Hepleaded guilty in 2006 in Savannah, Georgia, to federal charges of sexual exploitation of children and making false statements. He is serving a 30-year sentence.
Steve Penny, the organization's president, declined to be interviewed, citing privacy issues of those involved and the ongoing lawsuit in the McCabe case. But he released this statement: "USA Gymnastics has a long and proactive history of developing policy to protect its athletes and will remain diligent in evaluating new and best practices which should be implemented. We recognize our leadership role is important and remain committed to working with the entire gymnastics community and other important partners to promote a safe and fun environment for children."
The organization describes its member coaches and gyms as the "gold standard ... a distinction that parents look for and depend upon."
Yet the internal policies uncovered by IndyStar leave some with a different impression.
Shelley Haymaker, an Indiana attorney who represents abuse victims in child welfare cases, said USA Gymnastics' approach "sickens" her.
"USAG may not have been the hand that ultimately abused these innocent children," Haymaker said, "but it was definitely the arm."
Confidential sexual misconduct files
In the McCabe case, the organization acknowledged in court records that it seldom, if ever, forwarded allegations of child abuse to police or child protective services without being asked. When questioned under oath about its practices, Penny and his predecessor, Robert Colarossi, shed light on why. The reasons included concern about potential damage to a coach's reputation if an allegation proved to be false.
Colarossi said he inherited an executive policy of dismissing complaints as "hearsay" unless they were signed by a victim or victim's parent — a policy that experts said could deter people from reporting abuse. It's not clear exactly when that policy was created or by whom.
"What we're talking about," Colarossi said, "is a policy that was a policy of the executive office."
Michael Athans, an attorney representing USA Gymnastics, told IndyStar those policies go back to at least the 1990s and "really haven't changed."
Plaintiffs in the McCabe case contend that officials administered the executive policy inconsistently.
Sometimes, USA Gymnastics "investigated rumors, anonymous claims or hearsay allegations," according to court records. Other times, it didn't investigate complaints that appeared to meet its requirements.
Athans said he wished it were possible to further clarify the organization's policies, but officials are limited because of the McCabe litigation.
'I literally felt sick to my stomach'
McCabe was suspected of preying on young gymnasts as early as 1996, when he was fired from Gymnastic World in Cape Coral, Florida, by the gym's owner, Dan Dickey. Two years later, Dickey learned that McCabe had started coaching at a gym in Tallahassee. That's when Dickey sent a warning letter to USA Gymnastics.
Dickey's letter, received by USA Gymnastics on Oct. 24, 1998 — and included in records in the Georgia lawsuit — described how he fired McCabe after a staff member had told him that McCabe bragged about having a 15-year-old girl in her underwear and said he thought he would be able to "f--- her very soon."
"To allow this scum bag to continue working within the gymnastic community would be a terrible insult to all of the gym owners and coaches who have worked so hard to build up the reputation of gymnastics," Dickey wrote in his letter to USA Gymnastics.
USA Gymnastics sent Dickey a short letter four days later, saying it was "awaiting an official letter of complaint from a parent and athlete. I will add your letter to the file in the event we receive the letter and an investigation is commenced."
By then, Jan Giunipero, then-owner of the Tallahassee gym, had sent USA Gymnastics a fax after McCabe resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment involving females at the gym. The fax, dated Oct. 20, 1998, included six pages of allegations against McCabe with names and contact information for other gyms that had fired him or that he had left under questionable circumstances.
So Giunipero wrote two more letters urging USA Gymnastics to take action.
"I literally felt sick to my stomach to think he would even be touching these girls," she wrote. "Is this the kind of organization you wish to run? If there is any other incident similar in nature, who is to blame? The gym who unknowingly hires someone like Mr. McCabe or USA Gymnastics who knew about him and did nothing?"
Around that same time, McCabe began sexually abusing an underage girl, according to prosecutors in his eventual criminal case. The abuse continued for "several years."
USA Gymnastics renewed McCabe's membership in December 1999.
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Birds of a feather flock together, no?