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USOPC to add athlete reps in wake of Nassar sex abuse

USOPC to add athlete reps in wake of Nassar sex abuse
4 years 11 months 4 weeks ago Friday, November 08 2019 Nov 8, 2019 November 08, 2019 1:23 PM November 08, 2019 in Sports - AP - Texas

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee will add athletes to its board and enhance its oversight of individual sports organizations in a package of reforms stemming from the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.

The reforms were approved Thursday and go into effect in January. They come with Congress proposing its own, harsher, set of changes , after the scandal exposed the USOPC as deficient when it came to protecting and ensuring the safety of Olympic athletes.

Athletes will hold 33 percent of the board seats. The U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Association and Athletes Advisory Council will collaborate to choose the leaders.

The USOPC will have more power of policing national governing bodies.

An issue in the Nassar case was whether the USOPC was directly responsible for gymnasts or if responsibility was solely within USA Gymnastics, which is where Nassar worked as a volunteer doctor.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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