A. Ron Galimore resigns…now?

Esteemed breaking news organization USA Gymnastics announced this morning that it just realized Ron Galimore might be bad, starting today and never once before that.

64 months late on the button, that’s our USAG.

Announced via tweet (because of the gravity of the situation), USAG informed us that Ron Galimore has resigned his position as chief operating officer. Not fired, mind you. Because I can’t possibly think of any basis on which to fire him. Just resigned. Innocently. For innocent reasons. Per USAG, he resigned voluntarily. For whatever that’s worth, or even means. Heaven forbid we think USAG might have done the right thing and forced him out.

“You can’t resign me in disgrace! I resign MYSELF in disgrace!”

As the COO, Galimore should have been on our rage radar from the beginning of this USAG barf parade, but he only moved to the forefront once emails showed his involvement in the scheme to create a cover story about why That Guy wasn’t attending nationals in 2015. Galimore was assigned the important job of lying to the medical staff and saying That Guy was just sick instead of being investigated for sexual abuse.

So that’s pretty bad. That’s “how many people might have been saved a lifetime of trauma if not for your actions” bad.

At the very, very least, it’s “oh, we definitely can’t have you working here anymore” bad.

And yet Galimore was kept on by USAG. And the FIG. Through this news. And months more. Past the MLT debacle. Outliving Kerry Perry. Even past the initiation of the decertification process last week. Only (voluntarily) resigning in disgrace now.

There must have been a reason. Was it just that he had been running the entire show for the last year because Box o’ Scarves was too incompetent to do so? (Which has been the assumption.) Or was there something else?

Anyway, we definitely only need a 16-word tweet about his resignation. No explanation or accountability necessary.

So this resignation is…good. But also…now? Finally? Of all the times to do it? Doing this six months ago might have been one thing. Now, it barely counts. It’s like brushing your teeth on your deathbed. Sure, it’s a healthy thing to do, but also like…you dead.

Galimore’s performance in the sickness-cover-up travesty really drives home one of the many fundamental failings of USAG—commitment to the idea that lawyers, administrators, and former athletes are the best, most qualified people to handle sexual abuse. They definitely know the right thing to do at all times. No professional experience required. “This random lady I golf with sometimes can probably handle it.”

B. Alyssa Baumann

To emphasize that point of USAG’s fundamental incompetence and skewed priorities, the story of Alyssa Baumann, who along with Kennedy Baker, told her survivor story this week. Continue reading Things Are Happening – November 16, 2018 →