USA Gymnastics last year was given the death penalty by U.S. Olympic officials for its handling of decades-long sexual abuse by women’s team physician Larry Nassar. Yet as it crowned Simone Biles with her sixth all-around national title here this weekend, the disgraced gymnastics federation acted like an organization confident its sentence would be commuted, the Wall Street Journal reported. As Biles soared, USA Gymnastics claimed record attendance and revenue. It welcomed the president of the International Gymnastics Federation Morinari Watanabe as a special guest. It hosted ticket sellers offering seats at the Olympic team trials that USA Gymnastics will run in St. Louis next year in conjunction with its would-be executioner, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. And it said it was probably about to go out and start speaking again with potential sponsors. It’s been nine months since the then-U.S. Olympic Committee began its bid to decertify USA Gymnastics, a move that would strip it of its status as the national governing body for the sport in the U.S. But it’s been eight months since USA Gymnastics announced it was entering bankruptcy proceedings, facing hundreds of lawsuits from women and girls alleging they were among those assaulted by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment. The bankruptcy secured a reprieve for USA Gymnastics, because the decertification process was stayed as part of the chapter 11 proceedings.
