By Ken Reed
Reports of sex abuse and other misconduct in Olympic sports are up 55 percent in 2019 over last year at the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
Unfortunately, the Center is understaffed and underfunded to deal with the caseload.
The Center is now receiving an average of 239 reports a month, compared to 154 during a typical month last year.
Out of those, the SafeSport Center has 1,290 open cases, with another 2,237 that have been closed. It has 18 investigators and lawyers (with four vacancies) on a staff of 37 (with six vacancies) to handle them. The Center projects it will need to double its staff next year and triple it by 2023 to handle the workload.
However, funding is sorely lacking.
SafeSport has a $10.5 million budget for 2019. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), which founded the center, is asking the federal government to provide more than what it currently allots to the Center — a $2.2 million grant spread over three years, none of which can be used for investigations.
SafeSport is currently looking at a combination of sources to fund the Center going forward: the government, USOPC, NGBs, grants, and other types of programming and services.
But for now, too many sex abuse claims are going uninvestigated.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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