USA Gymnastics survivors’ committee urges Chapter 11 case dismissal

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Jan. 22 – A court-appointed committee of sexual abuse survivors is seeking dismissal of USA Gymnastics’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, according to a motion filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

The additional tort claimants committee of sexual abuse survivors said in its dismissal motion that USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) “have used this bankruptcy proceeding as yet another tool to inflict pain upon these sexual abuse survivors...and to deny justice to these girls and women who competed for this institution and their country.”

The committee said the case should be dismissed “because it has come time for some court or institution to give these women the right to finally have their cases heard before a jury.”

According to the motion, through USA Gymnastics’ bankruptcy proceeding, USA Gymnastics and the USOC has strung the survivors’ committee along with promises of change in athlete safety standards.

“However, these hollow promises of reform have been tools to buy USAG and the USOC time to delay and create a narrative that will keep their respective organizations free from scrutiny long enough for these organizations to indulge in their respective financial windfalls from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan,” the motion said.

The committee said these statements are also “intended to placate sponsors to continue their support before investigative agencies, criminal prosecutions and adversarial civil process will reveal the true depravity of the organizational cover-up of sexual abuse of athletes.”

In addition, the committee said the Chapter 11 case should be dismissed because USA Gymnastics, the USOC and their insurance carriers have not proposed a fair, comprehensive settlement with the survivors.

“The three lengthy mediation sessions with the survivors’ committee and the intra-insurance company mediations have not resulted in a compromise, neither monetary and importantly, non-monetary,” the motion said.

“This case, having been filed more than 13 months ago, is yet another platform for USAG and the USOC to delay justice to the survivors’ committee and their constituents, and the court should no longer indulge USAG and the USOC by allowing them to continue dragging survivors through this morass.”

The Indianapolis-based gymnastics organization filed bankruptcy on Dec. 5, 2018 under Chapter 11 case number 18-09108.

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