GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The Dark Side of the American Sports Success Story

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Thomas M. Hunt
Board of Contributors

Feb 5, 2018 | 09:00 GMT

Sterling Riethman, a former patient of USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar, testifies about the extent of his abuse of her under the guise of medical treatment.

Sterling Riethman was one of many victims to testify that USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment.

(JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • A government authority does not directly oversee a number of the aspects of the U.S. amateur sports landscape, unlike in the rest of the world.
  • The structure gives the governing boards for individual sports great latitude but can allow misdeeds to be covered up.
  • A 'hybrid' system involving a public-private partnership could fill in the regulatory gaps, obviating the need to create another bureaucracy.

I must admit that I felt a bit of nationalist pride when the International Olympic Committee made the decision to ban the Russian Olympic team from competing in the Pyeongchang Winter Games. At least the United States, I could say, wasn't systematically cheating its way to the top of the medal tables. But then … details surfaced about a very different scandal pertaining to the Olympics. And those details were sickening. The scandal burst into the spotlight from a Michigan courtroom, where a parade of U.S. gymnasts, including a number of Olympians, testified during the punishment phase of the trial of USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar, who had been convicted of sexually abusing them under the guise of medical treatment....

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