US Center for SafeSport fires CEO Ju’Riese Colón, the latest sign of crisis for the Olympic watchdog

DENVER AP Ju Riese Colon has been fired as CEO of the U S Center for SafeSport in the latest and majority of visceral sign of a predicament that began after revelations the center had hired an investigator who would later be charged with rape The center described The Associated Press about Colon s removal Tuesday in an email It brought an abrupt end to a tenure that began in when she was hired to help the then- -year-old center which was established to combat sex abuse in Olympic sports bring its operation to full speed The center noted its board chair April Holmes would lead an interim management committee composed of board members while they search for Colon s replacement We are grateful for Ju Riese s leadership and utility Holmes commented in the declaration sent to the AP As we look ahead we will continue to focus on the Center s core mission of changing sport society to keep athletes safe from abuse Colon did not forthwith respond to a text message left by the AP In her four-plus years at the Denver-based center she failed to fully untangle its struggles with long delays in processing an ever-growing caseload or the stream of complaints from both accusers and accused who had been dragged through a resolution process that could take years No issue however illustrated the center s struggles more than its handling of former Pennsylvania vice squad officer Jason Krasley Krasley was hired as an investigator for the center in but was abruptly fired last November when the center learned he had been arrested for allegedly stealing money from a drug bust he was a part of while with the force The center made no community mention of that until AP informed about the connection on Dec Then two weeks later Krasley was arrested again this time for rape sex trafficking and other crimes an episode that Colon conceded was devastating for the center The AP reporting led Sen Chuck Grassley R-Iowa to open an inquiry into the center s handling of the Krasley affair In a letter to Colon he wrote Accusations of rape and other sex crimes against any SafeSport investigator are especially concerning given SafeSport s mandate to protect athletes from similar abuse It was an obvious conclusion made more jarring by the fact he had to write it at all Colon s response to Grassley last month brought up more questions including why the center hired Krasley despite knowing he was the subject of an internal assessment Grassley sent another list of questions to Colon answers for which were requested by May Meanwhile the center reached out to people whose cases Krasley handled offering them counseling and a chance to share questions and concerns about the interaction with the investigator That move triggered another set of problems One such person Jacqui Stevenson described AP the notification retraumatized her and made her wonder if her circumstance which resulted in her abuser receiving a one-year probation could end in his penalty being voided The entire episode brings into question the viability of this -year-old experiment borne out of the U S Olympic movement s inability to deal with wide-ranging abuse crises at USA Swimming USA Taekwondo and preponderance notably USA Gymnastics involving now-imprisoned specialist Larry Nassar Fueled by Congressional hearings that included heart-wrenching testimony from abuse survivors a consensus grew that an independent entity was needed to do the work the U S Olympic committee and its sports subsidiaries could not Congress passed laws requiring largest part of SafeSport s money to come from the organizations it oversaw Despite its funding source the center insisted on independence It placed big demands on the sports organizations requiring resource-consuming annual audits and claiming first right of refusal on cases involving their sports It led to a lack of trust but also a fear of speaking up at both the Olympic committee and inside the individual sports agencies lest anyone be accused of undermining the center even if it wasn t performing well Others though did speak up Among the preponderance common complaints the AP fielded from dozens of accusers accused observers and attorneys who reached out over the past months was that everything the center did took too long and left too a great number of people in limbo This was a symptom bedeviling an organization that at last count was receiving more than new reports a week but had fewer than three dozen full-time investigators to sort through them AP sports https apnews com hub sports Source