Senate leaders urge support of bill to protect amateur athletes from sexual assault

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) led a congressional call on Tuesday for support of bipartisan legislation she introduced earlier this month to require amateur athletics governing bodies to immediately report sex-abuse allegations to police.

Collins was joined by U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Todd Young (R-IN) and members of the USA Gymnastics national team in urging support of the Protecting Young Victims From Sexual Abuse Act in a press conference that followed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill.

According to an investigation by the Indianapolis Star, more than 360 gymnasts have reported some form of sexual abuse by adults involved in gymnastics over the past two decades.

Young athletes who train to represent their country at top levels of competition should not fear victimization by coaches and sports officials, Collins said. “I have long worked to prevent sexual assault and ensure that survivors have access to the resources and support they need. By requiring amateur athletic governing organizations to promptly report every allegation of sexual abuse to the proper authorities, this legislation will help survivors receive justice and protect more people from becoming victims.”

The bill, which Collins introduced earlier this month with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), also calls for more stringent oversight of member gymnasiums and coaches.

“We must send a message that we will simply not tolerate sexual assault,” Ernst said. “We won’t tolerate it in our gyms, we will not tolerate it on our college campuses, and we simply will not tolerate it in the military. Sexual assault is a horrendous crime and we must work to ensure that there is zero tolerance for sexual assault in any facet of our society.”

Ernst said the bill would work to combat and prevent sexual assault by strengthening mandatory reporting requirements for sexual assault allegations and by requiring U.S. amateur organizations to draft and enforce policies designed to prevent sexual assault from taking place.

Young noted that parents regularly lend their children to other adults for supervision. “In this instance, it happened to be Olympic athletes. The health, the welfare, the innocence, the very dreams of these athletes were lent to the supervision of other adults, and we as a society let them down. We can’t do that.”