Safesport Does Not Let Me Continue
In August 2019, the U.S. Center for SafeSport took jurisdiction over an investigation into complaints from dozens of gymnasts and their parents alleging that Jiani Wu, an Olympic medalist for China now coaching at Legacy Elite Gymnastics in a Chicago suburb, had routinely physically abused young gymnasts, and that she and her daughter, Anna Li, an alternate on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and UCLA All-American, had verbally and emotionally abused minor-age athletes.
"Please do know that the Center is working hard to move through the process in a timely and efficient manner," Esther Johnson, the U.S. Center for SafeSport's intake coordinator, wrote to a former Legacy parent about the investigation in a September 4, 2019 email.
Almost 22 months after the first complaint was filed against Li and Wu, nearly 20 months since Johnson's email pledge, not only has the case not been resolved, but U.S. Center for SafeSport investigators have yet to interview Li, a former member of the influential USA Gymnastics athletes council, and Wu, according to interviews and U.S. Center for SafeSport documents obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Although Libby Bailey, a senior investigator for the U.S. Center for SafeSport wrote in an April 1, 2020 email to a parent, "I expect to interview the coaches in the upcoming weeks," she acknowledged in another email last month that the center still had not scheduled interviews with Li and Wu.
"We have been attempting to schedule interviews with the Legacy coaches since December but have been unsuccessful," Bailey wrote in a February 18 email to a parent. "They have recently retained new counsel which may cause additional delays in scheduling. Please know that we will not allow delays to go on indefinitely and should interviews not be scheduled within a reasonable timeframe, the investigation will be completed with the information we have collected thus far."
The continued delays by the U.S. Center for SafeSport have enraged former Legacy gymnasts and their parents and further fueled already widespread criticism that the center is too underfunded, understaffed and dysfunctional to effectively process cases in a timely manner.
"Why is SafeSport still allowing these delays?" said Corrina Milbrandt, the parent of a former Legacy gymnast. "This would never happen in a court case."
Legacy "is still open. They're still operating like nothing happened," said Ed Fitzgerald, one of the parents who alleges his daughter was abused by Li and Wu. "It befuddles us. I think it's despicable, just despicable."
More than 100 pages of confidential complaints to USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport as well as other documents from the two organizations obtained by SCNG not only detail the nature and extent of the alleged abuse but reveal that the U.S. Center for SafeSport has received complaints that Li and Wu have continued to abuse gymnasts since the center took jurisdiction over the case in 2019.
"I am worried for people still there," said Riley Milbrandt, Corrina's daughter.
At least 30 complaints have been filed with the U.S. Center for SafeSport in which gymnasts and their parents allege that Li disparaged gymnasts in front of their peers on a "daily basis," regularly called girls fat, pressured injured athletes to train or compete, and threatened to make negative comments to college coaches recruiting them if they struggled in training, were unable to train or compete because of injuries or illness, or appeared in Li's opinion overweight, according to interviews with multiple gymnasts and parents and U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Gymnastics documents.
Wu on multiple occasions pulled young gymnasts by their hair when she was dissatisfied with their training, including at least one occasion when Wu allegedly pulled a girl by her ponytail all the way to the ground, according to interviews and multiple complaints submitted to U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Gymnastics.
"Hair was pulled and girls were constantly body-shamed," a parent wrote in a formal complaint to SafeSport and USA Gymnastics.
Another parent in a complaint with SafeSport and USA Gymnastics said she witnessed "Hair pulling under the guise of physical coaching."
Carmen Scanlon said Wu pulled her 10-year-old daughter by her hair off a balance beam to the floor when the girl didn't perform a skill to her satisfaction.
"Jiani yanked her off the high beam, pulled her to the ground, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to some mats and then sat on her back," Scanlon said. "I was there. I saw it. I was stupid. I didn't know what to do. We should have left (the club) that day. We left a month later."
Another complaint alleges a "child had tape placed over (her) mouth for 2 hours" by the coaches.
Despite the severity of the allegations the U.S. Center for SafeSport rejected a request from parents that Li and Wu be placed on interim suspension, a measure with which SafeSport can suspend individuals as a protective measure pending the outcome of the investigation, according to documents. Individuals placed on interim suspension can then request a hearing within 72 hours.
"That case has been active (nearly two years) and Anna and Jiani still haven't been interviewed tells me that SafeSport doesn't care about one athlete. Not one," Milbrandt said. "SafeSport is a failed system that just isn't equipped to handle these kind of cases and it's not fair to these athletes and their families."
Li and Wu did not respond to requests for comment.
Russell Prince, Li and Wu's attorney, on Tuesday requested SCNG not contact the women.
"The SafeSport interviews with Center have been scheduled for quite some time and should be completed within the next 30 days," Prince said in an email.
When pressed about specific dates when the interviews had been scheduled or would be held, Prince declined to answer.
Instead he said "Anna, her family, and Legacy Elite have been fully participating in the investigation and the interviews are scheduled to be completed within the next 30 days."
SafeSport said in a statement "The US Center for SafeSport does not publicly discuss matters to protect the investigative process."
Legacy, located in Aurora, Illinois, is owned by Wu and her husband Yuejin Li. Wu earned a bronze medal with China in the team competition at the 1984 Olympics. She later served as a U.S. national team assistant coach at the World Championships. Yuejin Li in 1981 became China's first world champion on the floor exercise and was a member of China's silver medal men's team at the 1984 Olympics. He was China's national team coordinator when China swept the men's and women's team gold medals at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Anna Li primarily coached female gymnasts at the elite level, the sport's top level. Another daughter, Andi Li, is a freshman gymnast at Cal.
SCNG reported in August 2019 that top USA Gymnastics officials have been aware of physical, verbal and emotional abuse allegations against Li and Wu since at least 2017, nearly two years earlier than the national governing body has acknowledged.
Mark Busby, then USA Gymnastics general counsel, and Toby R. Stark, then the organization's director for Safe Sport confirmed in a series of September 2017 emails that USA Gymnastics had received allegations of "verbal, physical and emotional abuse" against Li and Wu.
The Busby and Stark emails contradicted statements by USA Gymnastics chief executive officer Li Li Leung in August 2019 denying that the organization was aware of complaints against Li and Wu prior to Li being named to USA Gymnastics' high profile athletes council in June 2019.
USA Gymnastics, and later U.S. Center for SafeSport, began receiving a new wave of complaints in July 2019. In addition to allegations of physical, verbal and emotional abuse, this new group of complaints also included allegations that Li and Wu had a practice of steering gymnasts to be treated by former U.S. Olympic and women's national team physician Larry Nassar at Michigan State's sports medicine clinic where he was employed. Nassar is currently serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison for possession of child pornography. He was sentenced in 2018 to between 40 and 175 years and 40 and 125 years after pleading guilty to a total 10 charges of sexual assault in two Michigan state cases.
At least four Legacy gymnasts were sexually assaulted by Nassar, according to three people familiar with the cases including an attorney for multiple Nassar victims. One parent said their daughter was treated by Nassar but was not sexually assaulted by him.
A previous attorney for Li said she has registered as a Nassar survivor with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of Indiana. USA Gymnastics filed for Chapter 11 protection with the court in December 2018.
Li resigned under pressure from USA Gymnastics Athlete Council on August 7, 2019, just days after an SCNG investigation detailed allegations against her and Wu.
One of the first complaints filed against Li and Wu in the summer of 2019 was a 600-word filing with USA Gymnastics by Milbrandt that detailed allegations of extensive physical, verbal and emotional abuse by the coaches.
Girls were routinely forced to do 10-minute handstands as punishment for failing to execute skills, Milbrandt alleged in the complaint. She also alleged her daughter was forced to stand by herself against a wall as punishment for two hours. Failing to meet Li and Wu's standards also resulted in girls being forced to sit in an inflatable floatie in the middle of the gym for hours, one girl for five hours, the mother wrote.
"Girls were forced to practice on injuries," Milbrandt wrote. "…Coaches thought they were above the doctors. They told the girls that they know more than the doctors do because of the length of time they have been in the sport. They said they never needed lists from doctors, that they knew how to manage all injuries. Therapy lists were torn up and thrown in the garbage. Girls were never believed when they were hurting, in pain or had injuries. Girls were told that they were faking the injury because they didn't want to do a certain skill or they were afraid.
"Hair was pulled and girls were constantly body shamed. Both coaches told several girls they were too fat, had too much cellulite and if they couldn't make a bar routine, they were too big. Coaches would inspect what the girls were eating in (an elite training group) and ask what they were eating for dinner at night. My daughter was mocked and laughed at and told she was lying when she responded with "'My mom is making a salad for dinner tonight.'"
Milbrandt also alleged in the complaint that around January 2015, Wu pushed Riley Milbrandt, then age 12, while in a handstand position into a balance beam. Milbrandt's collision with the beam opened a bloody gash so deep that its scar remained visible from a distance months later.
Shortly after the incident, the Milbrandts requested a meeting with Wu and Li. During the meeting, Riley Milbrandt recalled in an interview this month, Wu acknowledged pushing her.
"They were like, 'Well this is just physical coaching, this is just the way we do things here and that's just how we are,'" Riley Milbrandt said.
"I feel like they need to make acknowledgement. What they did was really wrong and I just want them to be held accountable for their actions. The physical abuse, emotional and verbal abuse is all wrong. I would love an apology but that's just not in their DNA. That's not who they are."
The physical abuse, being forced to train on fractures, constant bullying and screaming by the coaches took its toll, Riley Milbrandt said. Li and Wu constantly belittled her and told her she would never be good enough to compete at an NCAA Division I university.
"I wouldn't sleep at night, I couldn't sleep," Milbrandt said. "I would just worry about the yelling and the punishments that I'd have. Really keep me up at night.
"Make myself sick before practice so I wouldn't have to go. I just didn't want to have to face them. It just scared me.
"I felt like I didn't have a voice there."
The U.S. Center for SafeSport's handling of the Legacy case has left Milbrandt with a similar feeling.
"SafeSport is really not listening," said Riley Milbrandt, who will compete as a freshman next winter for Georgia, the most successful women's gymnastics program in NCAA history. "(SafeSport says) 'Oh, we're going to talk to the coaches soon,' but they never do and nothing ever comes out."
U.S. Center for SafeSport took over jurisdiction over the Legacy case from USA Gymnastics in August 2019, a move that was confirmed by Esther Johnson, SafeSport's intake coordinator, in an August 13, 2019 email to parents, and again in an August 27 email by Daniel Campbell, USA Gymnastics lead investigator.
Corrina Milbrandt formally agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Center for SafeSport investigation on August 14, 2019 yet she and her daughter were not interviewed by a SafeSport investigator until February 2020.
In a November 9, 2020 email to Milbrandt, SafeSport investigator Libby Bailey wrote "As of today, we have contacted over 100 parties for this investigation. Some have declined to participate and others are still considering it. The coaches have not been interviewed yet, as we still have parties who may participate as claimants. It's hard to provide an approximate timeframe, as we need to ensure we are thorough in our investigation. I appreciate your patience through this."
But Legacy parents said they have long ago run out of patience with SafeSport. Milbrandt expressed her frustration with SafeSport's failure to interview Li and Wu in a February email to Bailey.
"We completely understand your frustration and concern," Bailey responded in a February 19 email. "Please be assured the process of finalizing this investigation will not be halted while we wait for a response. We will continue to move forward with the drafting of the report. As part of the fair and neutral process we have offered the coaches an opportunity to sit for an interview. Please continue to be patient as we work to complete a thorough investigation."
Source: https://www.ocregister.com/2021/03/23/nearly-2-years-after-abuse-complaints-against-anna-li-and-jiani-wu-safesport-still-hasnt-interviewed-the-coaches/
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