Mary Bono Resigns After Just Days as Chief of U.S.A. Gymnastics

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Mary Bono, a former congresswoman, was criticized for her connection to a law firm that advised the gymnastics federation.CreditCreditBill Clark/CQ Roll Call, via Getty images

By Juliet Macur

Oct. 16, 2018

U.S.A. Gymnastics lost its latest leader, Mary Bono, just days after announcing that she had been appointed to run the troubled federation on an interim basis.

Bono, a former congresswoman who trained as a gymnast when she was young, resigned on Tuesday after public complaints about her opposition to Nike’s support for Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who knelt during the national anthem to protest social injustice and police brutality. Bono was also widely criticized for her connection to a law firm that advised the gymnastics federation as it delayed revealing what it knew about sexual abuse committed by its national team doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar, who is now serving a prison term of 40 to 175 years for the abuse.

My teammates & I reported Nassar's abuse to USAG in 2015. We now know USOC & lawyers at Faegre Baker Daniels (Mary Bono's firm) were also told then, yet Nassar continued to abuse children for 13 months!? Why hire someone associated with the firm that helped cover up our abuse?
— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) October 15, 2018

“My withdrawal comes in the wake of personal attacks that, left undefended, would have made me leading U.S.A.G. a liability for the organization,” Bono wrote in a statement. “With respect to Mr. Kaepernick, he nationally exercised his First Amendment right to kneel. I exercised mine.”

U.S.A. Gymnastics has been in upheaval for several years since the revelations about Nassar, who has been accused of molesting hundreds of girls and women, including national team gymnasts, when they sought medical treatment from him.

The federation had hoped to regain some stability when it announced on Friday that Bono would be its interim president and chief executive, replacing Kerry Perry, who was forced out in September after just nine months.

The day after the announcement of Bono’s appointment, however, the Olympic champion Simone Biles posted on Twitter her frustration that Bono had covered a Nike logo after the apparel company signed a new endorsement deal with Kaepernick.

Bono had posted a photograph on Twitter of herself using a pen to black out the Nike swoosh on her golf shoes. She removed the post after Biles, the sport’s biggest star, said on Twitter: “Mouth drop. Don’t worry, it’s not like we needed a smarter usa gymnastics president or any sponsors or anything.”

U.S.A. Gymnastics’ board of directors later said that the post was disappointing and that it had been missed during the vetting of Bono’s social media accounts.

The backlash against Bono grew on Monday with questions about her ties to Faegre Baker Daniels, the law firm that was representing U.S.A. Gymnastics when the abuse scandal broke. Bono, who served in the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2013, was a lobbyist for the firm.

Simone Biles spoke up on Twitter about Bono’s anti-Nike stance.CreditElise Amendola/Associated Press

Many of Nassar’s victims, including the Olympic champion Aly Raisman, said Bono’s work for the firm should have disqualified her from leading the federation.

“My teammates & I reported Nassar’s abuse to USAG in 2015,” Raisman wrote on Twitter. “We now know USOC & lawyers at Faegre Baker Daniels (Mary Bono’s firm) were also told then, yet Nassar continued to abuse children for 13 months!? Why hire someone associated with the firm that helped cover up our abuse?”

Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the United States Olympic Committee, said in a statement that Bono’s departure, first reported by CNN, was unfortunate, and that the U.S.O.C. would continue to work with the gymnastics federation to find new leadership.

But Bono was not the federation’s only controversial hire in recent months. In late summer, the organization hired Mary Lee Tracy, a well-known coach, to an elite coordinator’s position, only to ask for her resignation three days later. Tracy initially defended Nassar, even after dozens of women said he had abused them.

Perry, who was blamed for that hire, resigned days later, leaving the organization without direction yet again. Its longtime president, Steve Penny, was forced out in March 2017 because of his management of the Nassar case.

Now the organization is on the clock to hire a new chief executive. Gymnastics is one of the United States’ most successful and popular Olympic sports, and the 2020 Games are approaching.

The world championships begin next week in Doha, Qatar, and that will be the first time the United States women’s team — which has won the past three world titles in the team event — will perform at such a high-profile competition since Nassar’s final sentencing earlier this year.

Bono probably would have been there if she had remained in charge. In her statement, she said she regretted not having a chance to lead the organization because she was so passionate about protecting athletes from abuse.

The statement said that as a gymnast, she had “witnessed firsthand the assaulting behavior of a coach” and “watched peers who acquiesced in it move ahead, while those who didn’t were left behind.”

No one should have to “choose between abuse and ambition,” Bono said, adding that she had stayed silent about what she saw, “perhaps the norm then, but very troubling to me to this day.”