In December, 2018, the formal investigation into sexual abuses within USA Gymnastics concluded that the abuses occurred “within an ecosystem that facilitated (the) criminal acts. Numerous institutions and individuals enabled (the abuser) and failed to stop him, including coaches,… trainers,… administrators and coaches at both United States of America Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee. These institutions and individuals ignored red flags, failed to recognize textbook grooming behaviors, or in some egregious instances, dismissed calls for help… The fact that so many different institutions and individuals failed the survivors does not excuse any of them, but instead reflects the collective failure to protect young athletes.” The report is informally known as the Ropes and Gray Report.
USRowing exists within this ecosystem and the Ropes and Gray Report is a damning indictment of abuses that can occur within the world of elite competition created by the US Olympic Committee. “The culture (within USA Gymnastics) was intense, severe and unrelenting. It demanded obedience and deference to authority. It normalized intense physical discomfort as an integral part of the path to success.” The Report should be read in its entirety by anyone involved in rowing and genuinely interested in problems of sexual abuse within competitive sports.
In January, 2018, Patrick McNerney, CEO of USRowing, spoke to the Board of Directors on the need to challenge long-standing cultural norms within rowing and invited RowSafeUSA to address the subject of youth rowing safety. That address focused on the link between social and physical safety. “If my child comes home from rowing practice and says their rowing coach was acting inappropriately,” the Board was told, “I’m going to have a serious conversation with the coach. But if my child doesn’t come home from practice on cold water because they were told that ‘rowers don’t wear life-jackets,’ it’s going to be a very different conversation.”
Since that time several young rowers have drowned, some whose deaths were seen by coaches from their launches, but who couldn’t act quickly enough to save them. All drowned without the PFDs that should have saved their lives.
The problems of providing safe environments for people learning to row — especially children — is nettlesome. But the links between coaching, leadership, authority, and responsibility are deeply interwoven, and they include responsibility for both social and physical safety.
Marc Messing, Ithaca, NY, 23 March 2023
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