The Department of Justice of the United States is carrying out an extensive investigation into alleged sexual abuse in different Olympic sports federations in the country, as well as possible financial bad practices, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The New York newspaper, which cites sources close to the investigation, says that possible failures in the system of national Olympic sports organizations are being examined when responding to the "signs of widespread child abuse."
The US Gymnastics Federation plunged into an unprecedented crisis in 2016 when the systematic sexual abuse scandal erupted in which former national team medical coordinator Larry Nassar participated and forced her to file bankruptcy to reorganize. Nassar was sentenced to more than 300 years for sexually abusing more than a hundred young people.
The executive director of the United States Gymnastics Federation, Kerry Perry , who took office in December 2017, already set out as one of her priorities in her mandate to completely eradicate a culture in which the warning signs of abuse do not They were taken care of for years.
In addition to the Gymnastics Federation, other federations such as taekwondo, swimming and volleyball have been involved in scandals about how allegations of sexual abuse were handled in the past.
The Wall Street Journal notes that the Department of Justice's money laundering and child exploitation unit is involved in the investigations and that, since the beginning of the year, they have summoned several heads of different organizations, including the US Olympic Committee.
Researchers are trying to determine whether the dynamics of power in the operation of the US Olympic system - which manages a budget of 1 billion dollars - has favored the exploitation of young athletes, including minors , the newspaper maintains.
Former officials of the gymnastics and taekwondo federations, among others, are in the spotlight of the investigators to determine if they acted unethically when addressing cases of abuse.
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