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≡ U.S. CENTER FOR SAFESPORT ≡
“There was no roadmap when SafeSport opened in Denver in 2017, and within the first year, it received 281 reports of alleged abuse and misconduct. Fast forward to 2025, SafeSport received nearly 9,700 reports, a 20% increase over the previous year.
“Nine years after starting this work, there are now more than 2,600 individuals banned or restricted from participation in sport listed on our Centralized Disciplinary Database, a first-of-its-kind public resource for parents, employers, youth-focused volunteer programs, or anyone with a stake in athlete safety.”
That’s from a Monday commentary in the Denver Post by U.S. Center for SafeSport chief executive Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, who noted that after an extensive review of procedures and speaking with athletes, “we are laser-focused on developing the gold standard for athlete safeguarding.”
The SafeSport annual report for 2025 is now available and strenuously underlines progress made in case-processing and decision times, a magnet for criticism:
● A 25.3% decrease in case length for cases submitted from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2024 (36.9 days average for 10,131 cases) compared with 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2026 (27.5 days for 13,159 cases).
● A 9.0% decrease in case length for those matters which result in a violation, no violation and minor resolutions, from 154.6 days for 2022-24 down to 140.7 days for 2024-26.
● A 62.9% decrease in the number of cases open for two years or more from 1 January 2025 (70) to 1 January 2026 (26).
The nature of cases coming to SafeSport continued to show injuries of varying types as the most common. Of 8,065 allegations logged in 2025:
● 3,751 (46.5%): Emotional or physical misconduct
● 1,414 (17.5%): Sexual misconduct
● 861 (10.7%): Other inappropriate conduct
● 801 (9.9%): Criminal misconduct
● 545 (6.8%): Violation of Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP)
The total number of allegations is rising, from 6,706 in 2023 to 7,009 in 2024 and now 8,065 in 2025. The total number of reports to the Center has similarly risen from 7,533 in 2023 to 8,098 in 2024 and 9,683 in 2025.
Statistics for all SafeSport cases since inception were provided showing that most cases submitted are not resolved by SafeSport at all:
● 32,035 total cases since inception
● 10,213 (31.9%): jurisdiction declined
● 6,830 (21.3%): no jurisdiction
● 6,644 (20.7%): administrative hold (insufficient information)
● 3,438 (10.7%): administrative closure (multiple reasons)
● 1,329 (4.1%): jurisdictional hold (individual currently not in sport)
● 3,322 (10.4%): violations found
● 239 (0.7%): no violation found
Subtracting out the 2025 results shows:
● 7,399 cases processed
● 2,603 (35.2%): jurisdiction declined
● 2,096 (28.3%): no jurisdiction
● 928 (12.5%): administrative hold
● 855 (11.6%): administrative closure
● 209 (2.8%): jurisdictional hold
● 668 (9.0%): violations found
● 25 (0.3%): no violation found
So, SafeSport in 2025 rejected 63.5% of cases either for lack of jurisdiction, or determining that 2,603 emotional and physical misconduct cases – discretionary matters for SafeSport – should not be reviewed because they do not “involve severe injuries [or are not] are related to a matter the Center has exclusive jurisdiction over; or … when an NGB [National Governing Body] has a conflict of interest.”
Subtracting these out, there were 2,700 cases that resulted in 668 violations, 25 findings of no violations, 855 that were “administrative closure” that could include an admonishment or letter of concern and 1,137 held for administrative or jurisdictional reasons.
As of the end of 2025, there were 2,545 individuals on the Centralized Disciplinary Database, of which 51.1% were “ineligible,” and 37.5% were permanently banned; that’s 88.6% of the total.
SafeSport has undertaken a significant educational effort, with 1,641,420 online course completions, up from 1,574,923 in 2024. The goals are unchanged, per the report:
“1. Setting clear ground rules for 13+ million members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement.
“2. Educating athletes, parents, coaches, and others on abuse prevention and response to give the sport community a shared, best-practices foundation for safety.
“3. Ensuring safety policies are followed through investigations and audits, and holding accountable individuals and organizations that don’t adhere to the rules.”
Observed: The reduction in case processing times in laudable and must continue. But the statistics show a continuing, inefficient process that is partly due to SafeSport itself and partly due to who files reports and for what.
And while the faster case processing times are helpful, the number of cases shows that there continue to be safeguarding problems in Olympic sport, at an – unfortunately – increasing rate. SafeSport needs to find a way to create not only incentives, but pressure for compliance and thereby reduce opportunities for abuse. Not easy.
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