Subcommittee Chair Griffith Opening Remarks on U.S. Center for SafeSport (3.21.24)

for 5-minute opening statement as you all know this subcommittee had originally planned to hold this hearing last October I'm grateful we were able to reschedule this important hearing and appreciate the witnesses I appreciate youall very much for rescheduling it as well I know that that could not have been uh easy and I do apologize for the fact that we were supposed to do it earlier and we weren't able to get to it and thank you all for your flexibility and your understanding organized Athletics especially for our children is invaluable to the culture of our country sport is is instrumental in helping to teach young people the values of teamwork and self-esteem from soccer to football tennis to badminton lacrosse and my favorite swimming over 60 million children participate in Youth Sports Le sports leagues some children start their athletic Journey before they go to kindergarten they pour their hearts and souls into it dedicating countless hours in the pursuit of mastering their chosen sport a young athlete hoping to excel at the highest levels as part of the modern Olympic movement may have to put in the same training hours a week as the average American does at work and in many cases more than the average American does at work it is because of these Fierce comp these Fierce competitors and the extensive network of Youth leagues that the United States proudly claims the most Olympic medals in the modern Olympic movement at over 3,100 1100 more than the Germans who come in a distance second with 2,000 medals with this tremendous Sports success our country enjoys we owe it to the athletes to ensure that they can compete in a safe and abuse free environment unfortunately this is not necessarily the case as a member of the subcommittee in 2018 I remember listening to the testimony about the tragic and horrific episodes of sexual abuse documented at USA Gymnastics this repugnant occurrence was perhaps the worst case of athletic abuse seen in the US Olympic and Par Olympic movement Congress came together following that incident to Charter the US Center for safe sport to ensure those abor events never happen again the center is of 501c3 nonprofit responsible for investigating and resolving abuse and misconduct reports in sports leagues affiliated with US Olympic and Par Olympic Committee currently safe sport covers about 11 million individuals the center has a tall order but it is critical that we have functioning transparent and effective organization that seriously takes on its mission to protect athletes from abuse safe sport has CH has a challenging role to play in protecting children against abuse like any new organization it will need to grow and rectify mistakes that inevitably will occur as safe as safe sport learns and builds up its protocols it may also need legislative changes I'm well aware of the criticisms leved against safe sport particularly regarding its lack of transparency just a few weeks ago the commission on the state of the US of US Olympics and Par Olympics tasked by Congress to find areas to improve the Olympic movement stated about safe sport quote a decision not to furnish us with requested financial documents detailing spending as well as those covering certain safety policies reflect a lack of transparency built into the structure of the current system one that hinders the movement's accountability to Congress end quote this is concerning I'm also concerned about reports my office has received regarding youth sports leagues dis affiliating from their National governing bodies to avoid coach training and background check requirements imposed by safe sport this is very troubling giving that safe sport was created to protect ath athletes from abuse and instead it may be inadvertently driving athletes into more opaque leagues that lack the reporting and training requirements of safe sport the commission interviewed National governing body participants who told them quote a coach can move to an to unsanctioned competitions still be participating in the sport basically every single day end quote one person even told the commission quote the two biggest offenders that I know of are still coaching nothing ever happened to them end quote we must find a way to close these loopholes this oversight hearing is a great bipartisan opportunity to check in with safe Sport and some of the national governing bodies regarding how well safe sport is functioning and how overall athletes safety can be improved everyone in this room is in agreement the physical and mental health of our young athletes is Paramount we owe them that today we have testifying jerice colon Chief Executive Officer of the US Center for safe sport Craig Crest Chief Executive Officer of USA softball Mana shim chair US soccer Federation participant safety task force and Nicole deal senior vice president for security and athlete safety United States Olympic and Par Olympic Committee appreciate yall being here with that I end my opening statement and yield to the ranking member for