“Congressional Commission Proposals to Curb Sports Coach Sexual Abuse Have Bay Area Roots” … at Beyond Chron

After a whitewash 2014 “independent review” of USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program, followed by a belly flop of an investigation of youth coach sexual abuse later the same year by former Congressman George Miller, those in the Olympic movement holding the line against accountability and a true restructuring of America’s sports system for kids were overdue to meet their match. There are positive takeaways from this month’s report by a congressional commission that was established in 2020 to study a range of Olympic issues.

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Whether and how soon they get examined by Congress, much less implemented, no one knows. What can be said with clarity is that the commission report marks the first official formulation of a real solution; it correctly challenges the country’s sports parents to get their priorities straight, by pressuring their elected representatives to back a more sensible youth sports structure.

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For now, it’s enough to celebrate this glimmer of a breakthrough by noting that the Bay Area was ground zero in the uncovering of the last generation’s abuse horrors in many Olympic sports – especially swimming.

FULL TEXT AT https://beyondchron.org/congressional-commission-proposals-to-curb-sports-coach-sexual-abuse-have-bay-area-roots/

Irvin Muchnick is author ofUNDERWATER: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and Around the Globe, which will be published later this year by ECW Press.