Several US national team members announced on their social media last night that Kerry Perry, the CEO of USAG, asked Rhonda Faehn, the senior vice president for the women’s program to resign. Perry arrived at the first national team camp of the year in order to announce the news. For now, no official statement from USAG has been issued and it is not clear whether Faehn will be immediately replaced. Her dismissal leaves the national team without leadership as the federation still hasn’t hired a new national team coordinator after Valeri Liukin resigned. Faehn is supposedly the first USAG official to be informed of possible abuse by Larry Nassar in 2015. The athlete who reported abuse was Maggie Nichols, 17 years old at the time. She reported it to her superior, the CEO of USAG Steve Penny who later reported it to FBI after conducting an internal investigation. According to the Texas laws, Faehn was a mandatory reporter for suspected abuse of a minor and had to go to the local police which she didn’t. It is not known whether her dismissal has to do with failing to report Nassar to the Texas authorities or there are additional reasons.
The national team gymnasts, including Margzetta Frazer, Sunisa Lee, Riley McCusker, Jordan Bowers and Ragan Smith, posted on their social media that they trust Ms. Faehn and oppose her dismissal.
Margzetta Frazier posted a screenshot of her text to Kerry Perry, saying that she never got a reply and perhaps she would get one now. In the text she said that firing a coach in the middle of the national team camp is inconsiderate to the gymnasts and inappropriate. However, she later deleted the post and then deleted both her Twitter and Instagram accounts. The reason for that isn’t clear yet. Sunisa Lee also later deleted her Instagram post about the dismissal.
On Facebook, mother of Connor McClain, one of the gymnasts currently at the camp, said that the announcement disrupted the camp with the evening’s practice cancelled and a possibility of the cancellation of practices for the next day as well.
OC Register wrote in their article on the matter that USAG employees are “concerned that other significant changes to organization, including dismissal of top officials of the organization filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy will be announced at a staff meeting Friday morning”.
Margzetta Frazer’s tweet.
Jordan Bowers’ Instagram post
Maggie Haney’s (Riley McCusker’s coach) Instagram Post
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