Steve Penny | |
|---|---|
 Penny at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro | |
| Born | 1964 (age 59–60) |
| Alma mater | University of Washington [1] |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Former president of USA Gymnastics |
Stephen D. Penny Jr. (born 1964) is an American businessman and sports administrator. He was president and CEO of USA Gymnastics (USAG) from 2005 until 2017, and is a key figure in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. [2]
Penny began his career in sports as a marketing and promotions assistant for the Seattle Mariners. His other employment has included work in the travel and tourism industries.
Penny became active within the Olympic movement when he was hired by Turner Broadcasting in 1989 as a research manager for the 1990 Goodwill Games. In 1991, Penny became the director of media and public relations for USA Cycling and eventually became managing director of the United States Cycling Federation, which oversaw the amateur road and track cycling disciplines. Penny left USA Cycling in 1996, returning to his hometown of Seattle to become vice president of Bob Walsh Enterprises, focused on business development in conjunction with sports marketing, events, media and consulting. [3]
Penny joined USA Gymnastics in March 1999 as the senior vice president, overseeing a variety of areas focused on business development. Within a few years, his responsibilities grew to oversee the marketing, sponsorship, event operations, television and communications, including the management of the 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, California. On April 4, 2005, Penny became president of USAG.
During Penny's tenure, USAG leaders routinely dismissed complaints and warnings that employees and USAG-affiliated coaches were sexually abusing gymnasts in their programs. [4] [5] In a 2013 lawsuit, USAG officials admitted under oath that allegations of sexual abuse were routinely dismissed as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or victim's parent. Even when USAG leaders believed the accusers, they sometimes allowed coaches to continue coaching for years. [4]
In a 2015 deposition in a lawsuit against USAG, Penny testified that the organization rarely forwarded allegations of child abuse to police or child protective services. He said this was to avoid the risk of damaging a coach's reputation with false allegations. He also said that USAG officials had no duty to report abuse allegations if they had no first-hand knowledge of them. USAG dismissed complaints as hearsay unless they were signed by an alleged abuse victim or a victim's parent. "To the best of my knowledge, there's no duty to report if you are—if you are a third-party to some allegation...You know, that lies with the person who has first-hand knowledge," Penny said. [4]
Also in 2015, USAG quietly fired Larry Nassar, who had served for 18 years as sports-medicine doctor for the women's national team. USAG said it acted "after learning of athlete concerns". [6] [7] [8] But Nassar continued to run a clinic and gymnastics club at MSU, [7] where he was a faculty member. [9] He would ultimately be arrested on charges of sexually assaulting at least 265 girls and women under his care. [10]
In 2016, an investigation by The Indianapolis Star found that abuses by Nassar and others were widespread because "predatory coaches were allowed to move from gym to gym, undetected by a lax system of oversight, or dangerously passed on by USA Gymnastics-certified gyms". [11] More than 500 athletes alleged that they were sexually assaulted "by gym owners, coaches, and staff working for gymnastics programs across the country", including USAG and Michigan State University (MSU). [12] [13] [14]
In February 2017, Penny was accused by former Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu of directing USAG' efforts to downplay the abuse of gymnasts; she called for his resignation. USAG responded by saying that Penny was a leader in ensuring the safety and well-being of USAG gymnasts. [15]
Under pressure from the United States Olympic Committee, and "amid growing outrage over the way he and other top USAG officials responded to sexual abuse complaints against coaches and other members", [16] Penny resigned from USAG on March 16, 2017. [17]
Four years later, the USOPC and USAG would pay $380 million to settle lawsuits brought by more than 500 athletes who alleged that USAG was culpable in their assaults. [12]
When Penny testified before Congress in June 2018, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions, leading to a cry of "Shame!" from one onlooker. [18]
On October 17, 2018, the United States Marshals Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force arrested Penny on charges of tampering with evidence during the investigation of sexual assaults against Larry Nassar. The indictment further alleges that Penny ordered the removal of the documents from the Karolyi Ranch that were related to the activities of Nassar. If convicted, Penny would have faced a punishment of 2 to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. [19] The evidence-tampering charges against Penny were dismissed in 2022. A dismissal letter filed on April 14, 2022, said, "There is now insufficient evidence to prosecute according to current law and facts present in the case." [20]
The day after his arrest, USAG placed Penny on its "permanently ineligible" list of members "per the provisions in SafeSport Code for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, III.A.4, and USA Gymnastics Bylaw 10.14(b)." [21]
Penny graduated from Mercer Island High School, then the University of Washington in 1987. He has three daughters, triplets born in 2005. [22]
Penny is a central figure in the 2020 film Athlete A , a documentary about the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal.
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Márta Károlyi is a Hungarian-American gymnastics coach and the former national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics. She and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, Romania, who trained athletes in Romania before defecting to the United States in 1981. Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and many U.S. national champions, including Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Teodora Ungureanu, Phoebe Mills, Nadia Comăneci, Kim Zmeskal, and Dominique Moceanu.
United States of America Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Established in 1963 as the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF), USA Gymnastics selects and trains the men's and women's national teams for the Olympic Games and World Championships. USAG sets the rules and policies that govern the sport of gymnastics, promotes the sport at all levels, and serves as a resource center for members, clubs, fans and gymnasts.
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Gymnastics Australia (GA) is the governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Australia.
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The USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center at Karolyi Ranch or simply Karolyi Ranch in unincorporated Walker County, Texas, southeast of Huntsville, was a gymnastics camp facility which was the site of the main training center for the United States women's national gymnastics team, located 70 miles (110 km) north of Houston within the Sam Houston National Forest. From 2001 to 2018, it was the USA Gymnastics' national training facility for women's artistic, trampoline, and rhythmic gymnastics disciplines.
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The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal relates to the sexual abuse of hundreds of gymnasts—primarily minors at the time of the abuse—over two decades in the United States, starting in the 1990s. More than 500 athletes alleged that they were sexually assaulted "by gym owners, coaches, and staff working for gymnastics programs across the country", including USA Gymnastics (USAG) and Michigan State University (MSU). It is considered the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history.
Lawrence Gerard Nassar is an American former sports medicine physician, convicted sex offender and serial child molester. For 18 years, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team, where he used his position to exploit and sexually assault hundreds of young athletes.
Rachael Joy Denhollander is an American lawyer and former gymnast. She was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, of sexual assault. Denhollander is 2018 Glamour Woman of the Year and was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018. She is the recipient of the 2021 Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life.
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Jessica Howard is a retired rhythmic gymnast. Howard is a USA Hall of Fame gymnast, three-time National Champion and international medalist.
Marisa Kwiatkowski is an American journalist and investigative reporter at USA Today, known for her reporting of the USA Gymnastics' sexual abuse scandal.
A variety of forms of abuse have been reported in gymnastics, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Abuse has been reported in multiple countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
At least 368 child gymnasts have alleged sexual assault by gym owners, coaches, and staff working for top gymnastics programs across the country over the last 20 years.
At least 368 gymnasts have alleged some form of sexual abuse at the hands of their coaches, gym owners and other adults working in gymnastics. That's a rate of one every 20 days. And it's likely an undercount.
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