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INDIANAPOLIS — When Li Li Leung took over her role at the helm of USA Gymnastics in 2019, many gave their congratulations. Some then followed with condolences, alluding to the tremendous reconstruction work Leung had undertaken. Three years later, the organization is in many ways still trying to emerge from the cloud of a sex abuse scandal that rocked the sport.
Leung believes the national governing body has made positive strides, evolving from the version of itself that failed to protect athletes from decades of abuse at the hands of former national team doctor Larry Nassar. Leung acknowledges past missteps and the need to rebuild confidence, but believes she and others at USA Gymnastics have the right intentions and are prioritizing athlete health and safety.
The organization settled its lawsuit with survivors of Nassar’s abuse last year and is now attending the US National Championships in Tampa, a marquee for elite gymnasts, for the first time since that important legal decision. The national team has recently been operating under a restructured management model that cedes power from a single coach. And amid hopes for a sweeping cultural shift — trading domineering, fear-based training styles of the past for sane and positive techniques — Leung believes the United States can maintain its competitive success in women’s gymnastics. That’s why she’s here, running the sport from an eighth-floor corner office in downtown Indianapolis.
Leung, a former elite gymnast, watched in disappointment as her sport began to unravel in 2016 when Nassar’s abuse became public. While working in a leadership role at the NBA, she waited for progress. “And then it never really got better,” Leung said.
She felt compelled to volunteer, perhaps as a board member or consultant. When she reached out, she was relegated to the vacant CEO position. What started as an agreement to speak to the recruiter — “Maybe I can point them in the right direction to find someone,” she thought — grew into her application for the job.
Since his acquisition, Leung USA has led Gymnastics to a long-awaited resolution in the legal battle with survivors of Nassar’s abuse. The settlement reached in December would see the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and their insurers pay $380 million to survivors.
At the heart of the sport was the settlement and the subsequent opportunity to end the bankruptcy – in the US Gymnastics stepped in because, according to Leung, “that was the most efficient process that was envisioned [the board of directors] to settle the litigation” – allows the governing body to emerge from beneath this lingering cloud.
It also opens the door to more direct dialogue with survivors, no longer bound by legal hurdles. Conversations with past and present gymnasts can be formal through the Athletes Council and other committees, or informal with athletes who contact Leung. Tasha Schwikert Moser, a 2000 Olympian, now occupies a seat on the board dedicated to a survivor of Nassar’s abuse — an obligation mandated by the settlement.
“The past is really critical to who we become and who we become as an organization in the future,” Leung said in an interview last month. “I wouldn’t be here today if that hadn’t happened. …And I think a lot of people felt like they wanted to do a good job in the sport and that’s what pushed them to be here.”
No organization is immune to criticism, Leung said, so she expects there will always be some, but “we know our intention is the right intention and we know we’re doing the right things to create positive change in sport.” Building on that, she said, “Ultimately we get to the point where the masses or the majority get past. And we get there. We’re turning the corner and people are really starting to believe in the change we’re making.”
USA Gymnastics had ongoing leadership crises in the years prior to Leung’s arrival. Steve Penny, the 2005-2017 president of USA Gymnastics who was responsible for the organization’s botched response to gymnasts’ reports of Nassar’s abuse, resigned and later faced an evidence-tampering charge that was dismissed that year. His two successors had short tenures: Kerry Perry, hired in 2017, lasted just nine months in the role, and Mary Bono, a former member of Congress, stepped down as interim CEO after less than a week. Both left amid missteps and controversy.
Leung’s attitude didn’t end the skepticism: Some survivors felt ignored in the process, according to the Indianapolis Star, and Leung’s marketing background matched Penny and Perry’s previous experiences. But Leung believes her time as an elite gymnast offers a helpful perspective. It may refer to athletes with vivid memories of their competitive career. One Olympian said to Leung, “You’re like one of us,” which she took as a meaningful compliment.
The organization has a handful of other former gymnasts in key positions, and Leung has switched the national team’s governance model to a three-man committee instead of one omnipotent person.
USA Gymnastics initially advertised the position as a solo job, but, according to Leung, the organization’s leadership “decided that there was too much pressure on one individual’s shoulders, and there was not one individual who could serve in every capacity, that this role required.” As the role transitioned from one job to three, interest in the positions grew.
Announcing these new hires – 2008 Olympians Alicia Sacramone Quinn (strategic lead) and Chellsie Memmel (technical lead), along with Dan Baker remaining in his post with a slightly different title as development lead – USA Gymnastics once again faced some setback.
Olympian McKayla Maroney said when she mentioned details of Nassar’s abuse to fellow gymnasts during the 2011 World Championships, “an older teammate I looked up to” rebuked her for bringing it up. In the book Start By Bconscious, an account of Nassar’s crimes and institutional failures, Jordyn Wieber, a gymnast who was reportedly present at that exchange, identifies this teammate as Sacramone Quinn, who was 23 at the time. Sacramone Quinn, a 10-time world medalist and captain of the 2008 Olympic team that won silver, says she doesn’t remember the incident.
When asked about the allegation at a news conference, Sacramone Quinn said: “[If] If such a situation occurs again, we will of course report it to the authorities first. We will speak to the parties involved – the athlete, the coach, the parents – and get everyone on the same page and we will take steps in the right direction to get this done immediately. We’re not sitting on that. We do not take this lightly. … I would never want anything remotely like that to happen again.”
Leung said candidates are carefully screened and the organization “would never take anyone on board with whom we don’t feel comfortable about their past actions.”
Sacramone Quinn, a longtime member of the national team under Martha Karolyi, said she recalled being in a “fear-driven” environment. Now, as program director, she wants athletes to respect the staff, but feel inspired to perform at their best, not intimidated.
“Yes, my goal is to get them at the best possible level of gymnastics, but I want to help them shape who they are as people,” she said. “And when they come out of top-level gymnastics, they’re like, ‘Man, that was a great experience. People really cared about me, not just because of my gymnastics, but about me as a person.’”
National team members are the most prominent athletes, but the governing body is responsible for all USA Gymnastics members—beginning with young gymnasts in grassroots programs. According to Leung, community-wide policies will be designed and developed, including educational resources and requirements, and the introduction of a designated “safety champion” in all member clubs. Leung views the organization’s members as “stewards of the sport.”
The Nassar scandal also highlighted the power imbalances and emotional abuse of coaches within the sport that helped make a predator possible. Cultural change can result from education and demands from the top of the governing body, but also requires the support of coaches in clubs across the country.
“It’s up to us to set an example and drive this change,” said Leung. “It starts with the organization and it also starts with the staff of our national team. The reason we put together the new high-performance team is because they also believe in this philosophy.”
With USA Gymnastics in the early stages of planning a new training and wellness center, Leung envisions a facility that will be “the center and heart of gymnastics in America,” she said — not a gym where top athletes train in secret , which is how the Karolyi Ranch and the former training center of the women’s national team worked.
“We want this place to be a really, really welcoming environment for gymnasts of all levels,” Leung said, “and for gymnasts to be able to come and see their role models training, and a place that’s going to be a central place of education as well.” “
National team camps, Sacramone Quinn and Baker said, have a slightly more relaxed feel. But athletes still want to win and understand that it takes work. And Leung believes that competitive excellence and positive experience can coexist.
How much has changed may not be fully known until athletes of this generation have retired from the sport and are comfortable speaking openly about issues. With the competition goals remaining largely unchanged, the organization hopes to transform the way they get there.
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