A. Alex Naddour
We learned last night that Alex Naddour has been added to the USAG Suspended Members list regarding allegations of sexual misconduct, including multiple complaints dating back to 2012, and again in 2016 for additional incidents.
2012?!?!? SOOOO glad you’re just starting to do something about this now, USAG. Another real bang-up job. So much empowering women I can barely even handle it all. I’m sure those women who had to make complaints in 2016 feel so empowered learning that you had already received a complaint about him four years earlier.
It can’t have been easy for them to report this and make their statements, especially knowing that the “but what about HIM?” vultures would be out in even more force than usual because he has a known name, so thank you.
As for Naddour, this would seem to reinforce my theory that to find the creeps, we must follow the trail of bad Olympic tattoos. For now, he is only suspended pending a hearing (can’t be employed by or work out with member institutions in the interim), and we don’t know how long that status will last. The nature of the complaints is still vague, other than that they deal with sexual misconduct, which is really all we need to know. I’m sure details will come out as we go, but keep in mind that this is USAG/USOC, and in the past, the threshold for any kind of action like a suspension has been “It’s so big that we can’t not.”
And as for USAG, this passage from the OC Register is such peak reactionary USAG lying nonsense that I can barely even begin.
“Alex Who????? Never heard of her. Oh, um, yes, after definitely just learning who Alex Who is today, Alex Who is suspended, which was always going to happen anyway because of justice and empowerment and certainly not because we were trying to get ahead of your story before it came out so we could look proactive for PR reasons. We do all the caring.”
Here’s another winner, the official statement from USAG to the OC Register:
BUT HE WAS PLACED ON THE SUSPENDED LIST. THAT’S WHAT THIS WHOLE THING IS.
I’m very convinced that they are handling this in a well-organized, professional manner with standards and a communicated approach and whatnot.
Stay tuned.
B. Romania wept
Larisa Iordache: "Recovery is slow"… "Even on the street, when I walk, I feel that I am having difficulties"… "I still want to do gymnastics but it will all depend on my health"…"Chances to continue are around 50%" 💔https://t.co/b0BDbIpOun
— The Couch Gymnast (@TheCouchGymnast) June 20, 2018
“Chances to continue are around 50%.”
That’s referring to Iordache’s career, not the concept of Romanian gymnastics. But also both.
We hadn’t seen anything from Larisa in quite a while, so I don’t think many of us were counting on her for the major competitions of 2018, but any vague hopes of Romanian success this quad were nonetheless pinned on her returning at some point to save the team yet again. That’s perhaps an unfair weight to place on her since most of her contemporaries have already left elite (less than 25% of the athletes who competed with her in the 2012 TF are still active), but it is what it is. Sadly, she does not sound particularly optimistic about her return.
Without Iordache, Romania can still be a top-15 country in the world, but hoping for more than that right now seems a stretch. She’s the most recent Romanian great, but someone else needs to come along and ensure she’s not the last Romanian great.
C. Laurie to Gym-Max
Before it was all NADDOUR and THE END OF ROMANIA AS A CONCEPT, the gymternet was aflutter which much nicer news, Laurie Hernandez settling on Gym-Max as her new gym. Now that she has an actual gym at which to train, we can start taking the 2020 chatter a bit more seriously. Before this development, it was all a little “that’s nice dear,” but this signals some real intent, officially moving her up to 2nd place on the list of 2016ers most likely to make it to 2020.
Laurie needed a new gym after the relationship between her and Maggie Haney turned into a…what do you call it?…oh, a large sulfur fire on top of an ocean of rancid mayonnaise. I’m pleased that Laurie landed someplace solid and doesn’t seem to have been a victim of that “I can’t take you because you were at so-and-so’s gym and I need to be loyal to her” political BS where all the adults involved start acting like petty middle schoolers—the US gymnastics special.
D. Mediterranean Games
Saturday brings the opening day of competition at the Mediterranean Games. Team competition runs Saturday and Sunday, with the AA final on Monday and event finals on Tuesday. Basic expectations are that Spain, Italy, and France will take the team medals, but most of the other countries like Greece, Egypt, Slovenia, and Turkey are also sending first-choice teams and looking for competitive scores.
Only France is mixing it up by sending a team of half first-choice veterans and half newer possibilities to see how they fare. That’s a worthwhile strategy in testing to see whether any of those second-tier options are viable choices for a Euros squad that should be pushing for a team medal this year.
Schedule
Saturday June 23
9:00am ET/6:00am PT – Men’s Team Day 1
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Women’s Team Day 1
Sunday June 24
9:00am ET/6:00am PT – Men’s Team Day 2
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Women’s Team Day 2
Monday June 25
5:00am ET/2:00am PT – Men’s AA Final
11:30am ET/8:30 am PT – Women’s AA Final
Monday June 25
11:00am ET/8:00 am PT – Event Finals
E. This weekend
Also this weekend, we’ll have the European qualifier for the Youth Olympic Games, running all day Saturday and streaming live here. The top 17 countries advance to YOG, one spot per country.
On Saturday at 5:30pm local time, Germany will host its trial for the European Championship team, with Sophie Scheder, Pauline Schäfer, and Kim Bui headlining the field.
On both Saturday and Sunday, Brestyan’s is hosting the final US elite qualifier of the year, with compulsories on Saturday and optionals on Sunday. It’s the last opportunity to get the score necessary to advance to the American Classic and US Classic, which is a 51.000 AA for seniors and a 50.500 AA for juniors.
F. GymCastic
This week, a commission has us talking all about perfect form. We discuss the exemplars of said form on various events and manage to solve all the problems in the code of points and fix gymnastics entirely in under 2 hours. Easy peasy. You’re welcome.
The Larissa comment is heartbreaking. I hope she is OK, whether she comes back or not.
Forgive me for being out of the loop, but what happened between Maggie Haney and Laurie??
I’m out of the loop too. What happened between LH and MH?!?
Apparently Maggie got mad at Laurie because Laurie wanted to take time off to pursue projects concerning her sponsors and different post-Olympic fun associated with her newfound popularity instead of promoting MG Elite or training for Montreal/Doha. So Maggie apparently started sending her angry texts with stuff to the tune of “I made you” and there was a social media thing where people were talking about how Aly stayed humble even with success and Maggie said something like “yes, Aly is very humble unlike some people” obviously implying Laurie was that some people. So Laurie and her parents cut ties with her and made sure Maggie couldn’t contact her and they went from there. Granted, I didn’t see all of this, this is what I heard from people who saw deleted posts or people familiar with them posting things on social media. In short what I know for sure is that they had a falling out.
All of this is obviously hearsay, BUT there are rumors that Haney behaved inappropriately after Laurie took post-Olympic opportunities, and Laurie’s parents had to step in.
Laurie Hernandez “liked” the tweet where someone lays this story out, which lends it some credibility.
https://twitter.com/JimNastics2/status/1008321315810545664
There’s some more info in the comments of a Gymter thread. Lauren Hopkins had some more details in there, and then deleted later, but you can guess what Lauren might have said from the responses. [Check comments, not the post]
https://thegymter.net/2017/05/08/you-asked-the-gymternet-answered-161/
Huge caveat that I obviously don’t know what happened, and this is all hearsay. But those are the rumors circulating in the annals of the gymternet, true or not.
To be fair, for the Naddour thing, details shouldn’t be made public unless his accusers choose to go public. It shouldn’t be a policy thing as much as it is respecting the privacy of Naddour/his accusers. People are just upset because they want a giant drama fest and they’re withholding it from them.
The story isn’t that Naddour may have done something wrong. The story is that he may have done something wrong as early as 2012 and the USAG didn’t follow up on on the complaint. So in light of the years of secrecy, it seems wrong to continue the secrecy.
If the complaint were newly filed, then the situation would be different. But this story continues the trend of secrecy and cover ups in the USAG.
We don’t want a giant drama fest. We want a USAG that is transparent about investigating complaints and issuing suspensions.
The accusers deserve privacy. The sexual abuser does not have that right.
100% agree with this!
If he really was never notified – that is a big problem. Normally I would agree that for them to suspend it would have to be a big deal, but with the current CYA stuff coming out of USAG, it could also be nothing. He may be guilting, but I am unclear on the timeline. Did someone go back through files and start forwarding complaints to Safe Sport? Then somehow the OC Register, whether through open records or a tip, got wind of this referral and asked USAG about it? And, the first response was, “What?” – which could be just that whoever got the call did not know about the list of referrals ( yes I am assuming Naddour is not the only complaint in the last 10 years) and then when they found out the cat was out of the bag on him, did they suspend him because of optics or because of the egregious nature of the offense. Anywhere in their protocol do they notify the accused?
Ok that’s fair. While I think it’s important to know that the sexual misconduct happened and that they’re doing something about it, i don’t think it’s appropriate to publicly tell the details of what happened unless the accusers choose to go forward. With Naddour I want to say he also deserves some privacy since we don’t know what happened, but we saw how that went down with Nassar in 2015/2016.
They do if they are innocent – not saying that he is but his life will be ruined if the accusations don’t pan out. I am hoping that there is enough content to bring the allegations forward and public and not just a he said she said. Don’t eat me alive because I do believe in justice and abuse has been rampant – but I also believe in innocent until proven guilty. If they have evidence he should be arrested and until that time it should be silent.
But also – if Naddour was sexually harassing in 2016, he did that when married to Hollie Vise and with a young child. Disgusting.
I am yet to listen to the gymcastic episode, but I hope it showcases GAGE and the beautiful form that comes out of that gym.
Just noticed the quote for reason to suspend prior to finalizing the inquiry mentions nothing about participants’ safety – only that it might be detrimental to the sport or reputation of the sport! Spare me!
“At any point before a Complaint is resolved under the provisions of this Article 10, interim measures may be imposed to ensure the safety and well-being of the gymnastics community or where an allegation is sufficiently serious that an Adverse Party’s continued participation could be detrimental to the sport or its reputation.”
The first clause says “interim measures may be imposed to ensure the safety and well-being of the gymnastics community.”
Anyone know if there is a link to streaming for the Med. Games? I would like to watch the team final as it should be really interesting.
So happy Vasiliki Millousi is competing again.
France’s team is interesting. Grace Charpy (1999) is she the older sister of Lorette (2001) they are also from the same club.
Also Sheyen Petit (2002) any relation to former team member Marine Petit (1992)
Charpy was 7th at Nationals, Petit was 5th at Nationals, Osyssek was 11th, which makes for a good mix with Boyer (4th) and Vanhille (2nd)
It looks like the Olympic Channel app might be?
Does anyone know 1.at what point in reporting/investigation SafeSport suspends members 2.what burden of proof (preponderance of evidence/clear and convincing evidence/beyond reasonable doubt) SafeSport uses?
No, but I heard that the 2016 incident was just recently filed with SafeSport and never filed with USAG, so maybe they legitimately didn’t know when asked. They have made a big deal about the protocol about referring to SafeSport, but have not heard anything about the reverse.