Olympic committee president calls preventing sexual abuse most important role

Scott Blackmun, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), told a National Press Club Luncheon Oct. 21 that one of the USOC's most important roles now is to combat sexual abuse among athletes and create a safe and healthy setting for sports.

"There is no agency or commission today that is responsible for the safety and well-being of young athletes," he said.

Blackmun, who joined USOC in 1999, said, "perhaps most importantly, we need to have a dialogue about the role we each have to play in creating a healthy setting for sport."

The USOC is establishing a National Center for Safe Sport that will have two primary functions,"education and awareness on the one hand and investigation on the other," Blackmun said. USOC is investing $5 million for a five-year pilot program and,in addition to $5 million from each sport's governing body, plans to raise another $15 million to get the center off the ground, he said.

According to Blackmun, the best estimates suggest that one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18.

"And yes, it happens in sports, if not more, than society at large," he said.

During an interview with the Wire after the Luncheon, Blackmun reiterated the importance of creating of a safe environment for sports and athletes who participate.

A questioner asked about the morals clause and athletes signing a code of conduct. "Make any athlete think about the consequences in advance," Blackmun said.

Blackmun, a star soccer goalie during high school in the Chicago suburbs, went on to play at Dartmouth. He was a practicing lawyer in Colorado when he joined USOC. One of the best things about his job now is he gets to see world class athletes every day, he said.

"It's not the winning, it's the trying," he said of the Olympic athletes.