Current:Home > MarketsSafeSport Center announces changes designed to address widespread complaints -FutureFinance
SafeSport Center announces changes designed to address widespread complaints
View
Date:2025-04-12 10:17:04
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Center for SafeSport announced 10 changes to the way it operates Monday in a move it says is designed to increase efficiency and “trauma sensitivity,” while addressing complaints that have come from both victims and the accused.
The announcement of the overhaul came after what the center said was an eight-month review of a process that has been criticized by Congress, athletes in the Olympic movement and even families whose kids play grassroots sports.
Some of the changes address issues raised in a series of Associated Press stories that detailed drawn-out cases in which both victims and the accused often felt blindsided and unsure of the SafeSport process.
“We are proud of the progress we’ve made, but we are clear-eyed about the work ahead of us,” said Ju’Riese Colon, the CEO of the center, which opened in 2017 in response to the Olympic movement’s failed handling of the Larry Nassar sex-abuse cases.
One key change is that the center will now dedicate to committing half of an employee’s time toward training for its response and resolution department “including enhanced trauma-sensitivity training grounded in research and best practices.”
The center is also assembling a team that specializes in cases involving minors. It also will give people who file claims a before-missing option to review the center’s evidence and respond with new information within 14 days of the end of an investigation; it will limit the accused’s ability to introduce new evidence into cases that reach arbitration.
The center is also “conducting audits to seek accountability deeper into grassroots sports.” It’s acknowledgement of criticism that the center takes on too many cases from places far removed from the Olympic pipeline.
The mother of a teen who had previously reached out to to discuss her son’s case told the AP “in a first glance, this looks really good for us because they are essentially admitting their process was not good.”
Her family is filing a lawsuit against the center after it sanctioned her son before conducting an investigation. The AP is not using her name because her son is a minor.
Beginning Monday, the center is reworking what it calls “administrative closures” to give sports organizations more clarity on the reasons for the outcomes. Some 38% of the center’s cases between 2017 and 2022 resulted in administrative closures, meaning SafeSport made no findings, imposed no sanctions and there was no public record of the allegation. Those results can be costly to the national governing bodies and also cause confusion because those agencies sometimes want to impose sanctions independently of the center.
A Congressionally appointed commission recently released a report that called for changes in the center, including a proposal to have its funding come from the government, not the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee that it oversees.
The recommendations came out of a study that took more than a year and concluded “it became clearer with each new piece of evidence that SafeSport has lost the trust of many athletes,” the commission wrote in a report to Congress.
Colon was in front of a pair of Congressional panels last week where she previewed some of the changes on tap.
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
veryGood! (3699)
Related
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- Jennifer Lopez cancels 2024 tour This Is Me: 'Completely heartsick and devastated'
- TikTok Dads Terrell and Jarius Joseph Want to Remind You Families Come in All Shapes and Sizes
- Parade for Israel in NYC focuses on solidarity this year as Gaza war casts a grim shadow
- Sam Taylor
- Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky says faith in anti-doping policies at 'all-time low'
- University of the Arts abruptly announces June 7 closure, vows to help students transfer
- Woman pleads guilty to negligent homicide in death of New York anti-gang activist
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- After a quarter century, Thailand’s LGBTQ Pride Parade is seen as a popular and political success
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Florida deputy who fatally shot U.S. airman is fired following internal investigation
- Publisher of ‘2000 Mules’ apologizes to Georgia man falsely accused of ballot fraud in the film
- Donald Trump’s attorney says he was shocked the former president took the verdict with ‘solemness’
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes Prove They're the Ones to Beat at White House Celebration With Chiefs
- Pro-Palestinian protesters enter Brooklyn Museum, unfurl banner as police make arrests
- Retired Navy admiral arrested in bribery case linked to government contract
Recommendation
Bodycam footage shows high
Woman pleads guilty to negligent homicide in death of New York anti-gang activist
From his Montana ranch, a retired lawmaker in a crowded House race is angling for a comeback
Retired Virginia police officer sentenced in deaths of wife and stepdaughter
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Mike Tyson facing health risks as he trains with an ulcer, doctors say. Should he fight?
Columbus Crew hopes altitude training evens the odds in Concacaf Champions Cup final
Publisher of ‘2000 Mules’ apologizes to Georgia man falsely accused of ballot fraud in the film