Perry was criticized for focusing more on marketing and branding efforts than changing USAG's cultureGETTY IMAGES
USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry has been "forced to resign amid mounting pressure" from the USOC after a "series of high-profile missteps in her nine-month tenure," according to sources cited by Scott Reid of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Sources said that additional steps toward reorganizing USAG are "expected in the coming days and weeks." Perry had been "criticized for months for not reaching out to the survivors" of former USAG and U.S. Olympic team physician Larry Nassar's sexual abuse and for "focusing on marketing and branding instead [of] implementing policies to address the abuse of young gymnasts and make the organization more transparent." Perry's forced departure comes just four days after USAG "asked veteran coach Mary Lee Tracy to resign as the organization's elite development coordinator after just three days on the job." Perry and USAG were "already under fire for hiring Tracy, a longtime member of the inner-circle of former U.S. national team directors Martha and Bela Karolyi." The Karolyis are "viewed by many in the sport as creating a culture of abuse within elite American gymnastics that enabled Nassar's predatory behavior." Perry was a "surprising choice" when the USAG board "hired her to replace Steve Penny last December." Perry's initial moves "did nothing to ease concerns about her hiring." She took over the organization at a time when calls for USAG to "reveal the extent officials knew about Nassar’s abuse and to take steps to prevent future abuse." Yet Perry "focused on landing Nike as a corporate sponsor" after high-profile corporate partners dropped USAG in the wake of the Nassar scandal (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 9/4).
NOT THE RIGHT FIT: USA TODAY's Armour & Axon write Perry's departure was seen as inevitable after new USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland on Friday said it was "time to consider making adjustments in the leadership." Perry's "inconsistency in personnel decisions, inability to articulate a clear vision for the future and low public profile caused chaos for an organization looking for bold leadership." USAG has "lost all of its key sponsors, and its national championships last month were held without a title sponsor, almost unheard of for one of the marquee Olympic sports" in the U.S. Meanwhile, Perry did "create an Athlete Task Force to give current and former athletes a stronger voice in the organization." But its members were "not announced until mid-July, and it does not include a single Nassar survivor." USAG "remains in mediation with dozens of women who have sued the organization, and it often used that as the reason for Kerry’s low profile." But her "lack of interaction with survivors was taken as indifference, further proof that USA Gymnastics was only paying lip service to making substantive changes" (USA TODAY, 9/4).
UNDER SCRUTINY: USAG in its statement about the request for Tracy's resignation said that she had "acted 'inappropriately' by contacting a gymnast, later identified as Aly Raisman, who is suing the organization over the Nassar case." In N.Y., Juliet Macur noted Raisman had "spoken out on Twitter against the federation's hiring" of Tracy. Tracy in an email on Friday wrote, "It was in the spirit of healing and a desire to restore faith in a system that has failed the young women to whom I've dedicated my life, that I reached out to Aly Raisman. It pains me that it has been interpreted in any other way" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/1).
