Lawmakers seek better funding for Olympic sex-abuse crisis

: Category: Politics; Published: 23 May 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers used an emotionally charged House subcommittee hearing to get answers about what they portrayed as the U.S. Olympic Committee^[1]’s slow-moving, underfunded response to a steadily widening sex-abuse scandal in Olympic sports.

CEO Shellie Pfohl^[2] of the U.S. Center for SafeSport^[3] spoke Wednesday during a hearing that had one representative choking back tears and another screaming at the witnesses.

Pfohl^[4] told lawmakers that when the office opened in 2017, it received 20 to 30 calls a month. She said in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Larry Nassar sentencing, it’s increased to 20 to 30 per week.

Despite the widening workload, the center^[5] has only 12 investigators and operates on an annual budget of $4.3 million.

Pfohl ^[6] said she’s always in search of more money. The USOC ^[7]’s acting CEO, Susanne Lyons, conceded seven years was too long to get the center ^[8] up and running.

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