More turmoil for USA Gymnastics as chief executive Kerry Perry resigned on Tuesday. She took over for Steve Penny on 1 December 2017 amid the fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal, but was criticized for a lack of communications with the athletes and a bad mis-step with the hiring and firing last week of Mary Lee Tracy as the women’s elite development coordinator. Tracy had made comments supportive of Nassar several years ago at the beginning of the inquiry into his abuse of gymnasts and the hire caused considerable anguish, and triggered harsh comments from new U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland.
USAG Board chair Karen Golz posted an open letter which noted that “USA Gymnastics has been in the midst of a difficult and painful transition to ensure that the safety and interests of our athletes remain at the heart of our mission. While much as been accomplished over the past several months to stabilize the organization, we still face tremendous challenges as we all work to achieve fundamental changes to move our sport forward.”
A management committee will manage the federation while an interim chief executive is found. A search committee has been formed to find the next USAG chief executive.
Perry came to USAG from Learfield Communications, where she had been vice president of business development, and had run her own sports marketing company prior to that.
