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SPORTS Friday 9 November 2018
OLYMPIC FONDS The Senate subcommittee by critics for not react-
Continued from Page 17 hearings being chaired by ing strongly enough to the
To be sure, the money — Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, Russian doping scandal,
SafeSport will use $1 million may lead to revisiting the increased USADA funding
in the first year, $875,000 in law that formed the USOC, by about 35 percent from
Year 2 and $378,000 in Year potentially reshaping the 2016. Under similar criticism,
3 — represents a signifi- relationship between the it has doubled its outlay to
cant infusion for an office USOC and the 50 national the SafeSport Center since
operating on $6.4 million governing bodies it over- the opening.)
in 2018. But according to sees. More stringent lan- Earlier this year, Congress
the rules of the Justice De- guage about handling passed a bill requiring that
partment grant awarded sex-abuse cases could be the USOC and sports fed-
last month, it must all be di- added. erations under its umbrella
rected toward prevention A spokeswoman for Moran report abuse allegations
and education programs, said the panel is reviewing to law enforcement. It also In this May 23, 2018 file photo, U.S. Center for SafeSport President
and for auditing national whether the center needs granted authority to SafeS- and CEO Shellie Pfohl testifies before the House Commerce
governing bodies' work in additional resources but port as a place for athletes Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee about the Olympic
community's ability to protect athletes from sexual abuse, on
sex-abuse prevention — could not explain the rea- to report abuse allegations. Capitol Hill in Washington.
not the most acute needs son the grant was written The Senate version of that Associated Press
for an operation that has the way it was. bill included $1 million for
struggled to hire investiga- "Senator Moran ... is unique- the SafeSport center, but lion total over three years, come to find out that the
tors to look into the 1,622 ly positioned to address re- that funding was stripped and though the SafeS- actual final allocation is $2
complaints, an average source-related concerns as when the bill reached the port center was the only million over three years that
of 85 a month, that have appropriate," said spokes- House. The grant, part of legitimate competitor for can't be used for investiga-
come its way. woman Morgan Said. Law- the omnibus spending bill, the money, it still needed tions, it's just a slap in the
The backlog is growing makers are looking for oth- originally was written to be about six months to apply face for an important ef-
steadily, with spikes coming er ways to fund the center, $2.5 million per year for five for and receive the grant. fort," said Max Cobb, the
whenever sex-abuse and she said. years, but the full amount "When you know the origi- American NGB leader who
assault cases make big The U.S. Olympic Commit- was not appropriated, nal bill was worth $2.5 mil- spearheaded that group's
headlines. tee provides $3.1 million Pfohl said. That left $2.2 mil- lion for five years, then you funding increase.q
Not long after opening, a year for SafeSport, and
when the #MeToo move- earlier this year, the orga-
ment and Nassar allega- nizations that run Olympic
tions were in the headlines, sports in America (national
the number of reports com- governing bodies) com-
ing into the center rose bined to increase their
from 20 to 30 a month to contribution by nearly 25
that same number each percent to a total of $2 mil-
week. Over the two weeks lion a year starting in 2019.
that Supreme Court Justice When the USOC pushed
Brett Kavanaugh's confir- to open the center amid
mation topped the news growing outrage over slow
because of sexual assault responses to scandals in
allegations that he denies, swimming, taekwondo and
the center received 135 other sports, it searched for
calls. funding across the sports
The center has 14 employ- landscape — from pro
ees on its response and res- leagues to the NCAA and
olution team, including six elsewhere — but found
full-time investigators and few backers. The relative
another dozen who work dearth of cash flow has
on a contract basis. Ac- slowed the center's mission.
cording to numbers provid- Since its opening, SafeSport
ed by the center, full-time investigations have led to
investigators handle an 381 disciplinary actions, in-
average of 10 active cases cluding 222 cases that led
at any given time and the to permanent ineligibility.
contractors handle be- The discipline is similar to
tween three and six. That what the U.S. Anti-Doping
means no more than 132 Agency does on the drug
of the 800-plus cases are front.
being investigated at any By comparison, USADA,
given time. which also must fund a ro-
The $2.2 million grant won't bust testing system, report-
help resolve any of those ed $21 million in revenue in
manpower issues. 2017, $9.5 million of which
"We're looking at all kinds came from a grant from
of strategies of knocking the federal Office of Na-
down that backlog," Pfohl tional Drug Control Policy
said. "It's not just throwing and another $5.1 million
bodies at the workload. It's of which came from the
also being very strategic USOC. There were no sig-
about the type of people nificant strings attached
we're hiring who can help to USADA's government
folks from the time they call grant.
us to submit a report." (The USOC, chastened