D4 eZ m2 THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAy, MARCH 5 , 2020
compensatory sums and punitive
damages. They want
“transparency, c ulture change
and replacement of those who
subscribe to the money- and
medals-first model,” according to
attorney John manly. What they
have gotten is the same old
bureaucracy, still more invested
in sheltering cronies, stifling
fact-finding and fighting liability
than in fixing a horrendous
problem and making real
amends.
The USoPC has protected
itself from congressional action
by suggesting that knocking
down the organization and
starting over would somehow
harm preparations for the 2020
To kyo and 2028 Los Angeles
Games. Nonsense. That’s pure
sophistry. our athletes are
primarily self-driven and self-
funded — just try to stop them.
They deserve a restructured,
athlete-first organization in
which they come ahead of
branding executives’ salaries,
with the money flow uncorked
and redirected from
administrative bloat to athlete
training and well-being. Parents,
ask yourselves: Should your
prodigies really be entrusted to
an organization that continues to
argue it has “no legal duty” to
protect girls from a gloveless
Larry Nassar?
“The best thing we can do for
our current athletes is to stop
saddling them with this grossly
incompetent organization that
does not have their interests at
heart,” Denhollander said. “Had
we razed this organization four
years ago, they would now have a
safe and supportive organization
going into the Games. Instead
Simone Biles is having anxiety
attacks in an airport on her way
to camp.”
Congressional overseers need
to read the settlement offer. It
says it all.
“The fact they thought this
was even reasonable shows how
little they understand about our
motivation,” Denhollander said.
“None of these survivors are
going to quit. We’re not quitting.”
[email protected]For more by sally Jenkins, visit
washingtonpost.com/jenkins.USoPC chief executive Sarah
Hirshland needs to be marched
back to Capitol Hill, so she can
explain to Sen. Charles E.
Grassley (r-Iowa) and others on
the Judiciary Committee why our
olympic officials have “no legal
duty” to keep the United States’
athletes from being molested,
abused and digitally raped by a
team doctor — and why any
settlement requires so many
gags.
The USoPC has spouted lots of
platitudes about systemic
failures. But we still don’t have a
full picture of who concealed
what and when. The problem
appears to go back decades.
These “releases” would prevent
the gymnasts from ever finding
out and from holding anyone
accountable beyond the narrow
slice of officialdom that has been
forced to resign.
This should be the last straw
for Congress. When are
legislators going to clean out this
mess? When will they give our
most inspired young athletes the
organization they deserve? And
when will they force answers
from law enforcement? The
gymnasts aren’t just out forBiles, who read the settlement
document while sitting in an
airport on her way to prepare for
a competition and came across
this sentence pressuring her to
sign: “Courts are unlikely to hold
the Debtor legally responsible for
the unforeseeable criminal
misconduct that gave rise to the
Abuse Claims.”
Unforeseeable? Unforeseeable?
USA officials knew Nassar
improperly “treated” young girls
on their beds. They never even
bothered to check on the health
and safety procedures at camps
where Biles was isolated for days.
How would you like to be
raisman, leafing through your
copy, when you come upon this
sentence, insisting it’s in your
best interest to sign for a pittance
because, “most fundamentally,
all of the abuse claims are subject
to dismissal on the basis that the
Debtor did not have a legal duty
to the Claimant.”
No legal duty? No legal duty?
The settlement offer will go
nowhere but in the trash. The
rightly enraged gymnasts will
reject it. The presiding judge has
said the USoPC needs to get out
its wallet. But in the meantime,would get, as recompense for
being left unprotected and
subject to Nassar’s digital rapes
in a hotel room or training camp
dorm, would be $1.2 million.
Want some context?
Sportscaster Erin Andrews won
$55 million from marriott for
failing to protect her privacy. A
single victim of a Boy Scout
pedophile in oregon was
awarded $18.5 million. michigan
State agreed to pay $500 million
to a far smaller pool of victims
Nassar assaulted in his role as a
university employee.
What should the monetary
justice be for a child gymnast
who was penetrated barehanded
by Nassar, painfully, hundreds of
times?
raisman has said she felt
forced by olympic officials to
submit to his “treatments”
repeatedly for years. His
youngest victim was just 10.
What’s the price for those
invisible brands? What’s the
price for the years of flashbacks,
rage, psychotherapy, self-blame,
confusion and inability to trust?
What’s the price for the stigma
and the haunt?
How would you like to bedocument isn’t an offer so much
as an accountability-evading
ruse. Its chief feature is a clause
that would force Simone Biles,
Aly raisman and 500 other
young women to blanket-release
a long list of abusers, molesters
and enablers, as well as the entire
USoPC, from all liability in
exchange for a short stack of
cash.
“It’s such a slap in the face,
such complete disregard for the
damage done,” said rachael
Denhollander, whose
determination to go public
brought down Nassar. “It’s
nowhere near a step toward
justice. It tells us: ‘Your assault
was not that big a deal. Get over
it.’ ”
Without this list of releases,
the offer document says, a
financial settlement is
impossible. The list is a host of
creeps. Creeps such as Don
Peters, banned for life from
coaching over allegations he
sexually abused teenage
gymnasts. Creeps such as John
Geddert, who allegedly gave one
of his gymnasts a black eye. Bela
and marta Karolyi, whose creepy
sequestered camps became abuse
havens. former USAG chief Steve
Penny, the arch-creep, whose
stunning slow walk of the Nassar
investigation let a pedophile say
publicly that he “retired.”
Now, why would these releases
be so nonnegotiable? What does
that suggest? It suggests there is
more ugly conduct that olympic
officials don’t want to come to
light, that’s what. It suggests a
coverup.
No wonder the gymnasts went
crazy when they read the “offer.”
Biles slammed it on Twitter, and
raisman blasted it on “Today.”
money is a measure of respect.
What this settlement “offer” says
is that olympic officials don’t
respect the gymnasts’ injuries,
recognize the seriousness of the
damage or understand the
reforms they want. Instead, in
exchange for those
nonnegotiable gag orders, they
have offered a lowball figure of
$215 million to be divided among
more than 500 victims. The
highest amount a young woman
jenKIns from D1
SALLY JENKINS
Wanting accountability, Nassar victims o≠ered cash, gag orders
DAle g yoUng/AssocIAteD Press
Aly Raisman called the s ettlement offer “offensive” and accused UsA Gymnastics of “ a coverup.”FROM NEWS SERVICESThe Carolina Panthers
agreed to trade five-time Pro
Bowl guard Trai Turner to the
Los Angeles Chargers for two-
time Pro Bowl tackle russell
okung, ESPN and NfL Net-
work reported Wednesday.
The teams agreed to the deal
in principle and will complete
it after the start of the league
year march 18, according to the
reports.
Turner, 26, was selected to
the Pro Bowl in each of the past
five seasons. The Panthers se-
lected him in the third round of
the 2014 draft, and he has
played in 84 games and made
80 starts since.
He has two years remaining
on a four-year, $45 million
contract extension he signed
with Carolina in July 2017 but
reportedly wants a new deal.
okung, 31, started his career
with the Seattle Seahawks after
they made him the No. 6 p ick in
the 2010 NfL draft, played with
the Denver Broncos in 2016
and spent the past three sea-
sons with the Chargers. He was
limited to just six games in
2019, starting the season on the
non-football illness list after
suffering a pulmonary embo-
lism caused by blood clots and
ending the season with a groin
injury.
He has played in 124 career
games, all starts. He signed a
four-year, $53 million deal with
the Chargers in march 2017.
In Carolina, he will be re-
united with offensive line
coach Pat meyer, who worked
for the Chargers from 2017 to
2019.
l BILLs: Defensive coordi-
nator Leslie frazier is adding
assistant head coach to his job
title.
The promotion underscores
frazier’s role of serving as one
of Coach Sean mcDermott’s
most trusted advisers while
also overseeing one of the
NfL’s stingiest defenses over
the past two seasons.
“His fingerprints are all over
our operation, and I’m ex-
tremely grateful for all the
years we have worked togeth-
er,” mcDermott said in a state-
ment released by the team.
“Leslie’s impact on our team is
felt every day through his guid-
ance, wisdom and his genuine
care for people. He is a great
example to everyone within
our organization.”
The 60-year-old frazier is
noted for having a command-
ing, even-keeled approach. And
his relationship with mcDer-
mott showed no signs of frac-
turing after mcDermott briefly
took over the defensive play-
calling duties during Buffalo’s
31-20 loss to the Los Angeles
Chargers in 2018.
frazier was among the first
coaches mcDermott hired upon
taking over the Bills job in 2017.
frazier has 22 seasons of NfL
coaching experience, including
a three-plus-year stint as head
coach of the minnesota Vikings
from 2010 to 2013.
He and mcDermott previ-
ously worked together as assis-
tants with the Philadelphia
Eagles in the early 2000s.
The Bills also announced
four other job title changes to
their coaching staff.
Jimmy Salgado was promot-
ed from defensive assistant to
nickel cornerbacks coach. of-
fensive quality control coach
marc Lubick was elevated to
assistant receivers/game man-
agement coach. offensive assis-
tant Shea Tierney will serve as
assistant quarterbacks coach.
And ryan Wendell was
made assistant offensive line
coach.
l 49eRs: running back ra-
heem mostert canceled a
scheduled autograph session
out of concern for the spread of
the coronavirus.
mostert said on Twitter that
he won’t attend his scheduled
autograph signing session Sun-
day at Santa Clara Convention
Center because of the outbreak
of the virus in the Bay Area.
California Gov. Gavin News-
om declared a statewide emer-
gency after the state’s first
fatality from the new coronavi-
rus. Newsom said the state has
53 cases of CoVID-19.NFL NOTESPanthers
reportedly
deal Turner
to Chargers
Carolina has agreement
to send Pro Bowl guard
to L.A. for tackle OkungBY RICK MAESEdes moines — If there was any
rust, Katie Ledecky shook it off on
the starting block. She hit the
water and looked nothing like a
distance swimmer who was still
three months away from taper-
ing.
In her first race of 2020, Katie
Ledecky posted the fifth-fastest
1,500-meter freestyle time in his-
tory, finishing in 15 minutes
29.51 seconds at a TYr Pro Series
meet Wednesday. Perhaps just as
noteworthy, L edecky’s first race in
nearly three months produced
her fastest mile in nearly two
years.
“It’s march — we don’t gear up
for this meet in any special way. I
feel good about that and just got
to keep rolling,” said Ledecky, 22,
a native of the District. “Not really
going to get too high or low off any
swims right now. I know I’m in a
good spot and feeling good in the
water.”
The 1,500 will make its olym-
pic debut this summer and fig-
ures to be a centerpiece of
Ledecky’s To kyo program, a dis-
tance at which she is literally laps
ahead of the field. It’s also the
biggest difference from her two
previous olympic trips, a race
that prompted her to reconsider
her slate of events and drop one of
the medal-winning events from
her rio program.
The 1,500 wasn’t an option at
the London and rio de Janeiro
Games. It was a staple at most
other international meets and
had been contested at the world
championships since 2001, but it
wasn’t until 2017 that the wom-
en’s 1,500 event was finally added
to the olympics. That l eft Ledecky
and her team with a decision to
make: She knew she had to swim
the 1,500, but how would it im-
pact the rest of her program?
Could she reasonably train for
every distance from the 100- to
the 1,500-meter races?
“When the 1,500 was added,
that changed things,” said Greg
meehan, her coach.
The mile-long race is Ledecky’s
most dominant distance, perhaps
the closest to a sure thing at these
Summer Games. In Wednesday’s
race, she was more than 45 sec-
onds better than second-place fin-
isher Leah Smith. Ledecky is now
the owner of the 11 fastest
1,500 times ever posted, and no
one has been within three sec-
onds of her in nearly seven years.
That’s when a 16-year-old
Ledecky first set the record at the
2013 world championships. She
has since lowered the mark five
more times, shaving nearly 22
seconds off the previous record
that Kate Ziegler had held for five
years.
meehan knew adding the gru-
eling 1,500 to the mix meant
something probably had to go.
“So going from the 100 to 800,
that makes a little bit of sense,” h e
said, “because from a racing per-
spective, it’s a lot less mileage.
Now you add the 1,500, not only is
it 3,000 meters at the Games [in
qualifying and finals], but it’s a lso
3,000 meters at trials. So she’sgoing to be carrying more racing
volume out of trials, and she
hasn’t had to do that before.”
Tr ying to train at both the
shortest distances and the longest
was akin to “trying to please too
many masters in terms of her
energy systems,” meehan said. “A t
some point you’re going to run
into a wall.”
They agreed to drop the
1 00-meter freestyle from her rep-
ertoire, which means she proba-
bly won’t be a candidate for the
4x100 relay in To kyo. She still will
have a shot to match her five-med-
al haul from rio, though, and can
take aim at four individual med-
als this time. In 2016, Ledecky
won gold in the 200, 400 and
800 freestyle races, plus gold in
the 4x200 and silver in the 4x100.
Ledecky only needs to finish in
the top two at the U.S. trials in
June to qualify for the To kyo
Games, which shouldn’t be a
stretch for her. She hasn’t f inishedthird in a U.S. event dating from
the 2012 trials.
With her To kyo program prob-
ably locked in, the next several
months will be spent fine-tuning
preparations for the grueling
meet awaiting there.
Similar to the 2008 Beijing
Games, these olympics are flip-
ping the swimming schedule,
staging the finals in the mornings
in To kyo and the preliminary
heats in the evening, thus allow-
ing the olympics’ biggest races to
be televised live in prime time in
the United States. That requires
an adjustment for the swimmers,
which is why April’s TYr Pro
Series event in mission Viejo, Ca-
lif., will replicate the To kyo sched-
ule, giving swimmers a chance to
wake up and immediately head to
the pool for the finals.
The way the To kyo schedule is
arranged, Ledecky probably
would swim five straight days at
one point, including two gruelingdoubles. The 200 and 1,500 races
are scheduled for the same ses-
sions, requiring a difficult turn-
around for Ledecky. Still, even
though the 200 might be her most
vulnerable race, she’s committed
to both distances.
“We’ ll do something to simu-
late [the double] and make sure
I’m ready,” L edecky said. “I have to
be in great shape and know the
mile is probably going to hurt on
the back end. Just getting in the
best shape I can be in and feeling
very confident going in those.”
Ta ckling the mile and the
shorter distances is a rarity in the
swim world. The 1,500 is such a
different beast that few even at-
tempt the wide range of distances.
“The 400 is a real stretch,”
meehan said, “and then the 200 is
basically unheard of. So her abili-
ty to go from the 200 to the 1,500
and be that good, it’s certainly
unique.”
[email protected]Ledecky’s runaway win may be Tokyo preview
mADDIe meyer/Agence FrAnce-Presse/getty ImAges
Katie Ledecky swam her fastest mile in nearly two years, winning the 1,500 meters in 15:29.51 at the TYR Pro swim series in Des Moines.District native posts
f ifth-fastest mile ever
during a m eet in Iowa