Li Li Leung’s Mission to Restore Faith in USA Gymnastics
Author’s Note: This interview was conducted in June, so all information relayed was correct at the time of writing.
Back in 2019, USA Gymnastics was a mess that it is today still recovering from.
As the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal came to light, the association was heavily criticised for fostering a culture that allowed its athletes to suffer in silence.
Current president and CEO, Li Li Leung took over in early 2019. A former gymnast herself, she’s spearheading the charge to make sure the organisation continues to rebuild trust with its athletes.
Here, Leung discusses a wide range of topics with The Sports Gazette.
Tackling Abusive Treatment of Gymnasts
The problem of abuse in gymnastics looms large over athletes, coaches and administrators alike. In June, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Larry Nassar, a former physician for USA Gymnastics, who sexually assaulted several gymnasts, including Olympic medallists.
He has since been sentenced for 40 years in prison.
The decision by Team USA to appoint former Olympic champion Valeri Liukin as a coach for an international competition earlier this year raised eyebrows, given he was under investigation at the time for allegedly verbally and mentally abusing athletes.
Gymnastics in the UK is also in a poor state, after the independent Whyte Review recently concluded that abuse from a physical and emotional standpoint were systemic within British gymnastics.
On whether the sport has made progress towards eradicating abusive practices from the sport, Leung tells the Sports Gazette: “I believe mistreatment happens in society. It’s not just happening in sports, or in gymnastics. It happens on a societal basis. We are doing everything to establish measures to prevent it from happening.
“We believe that you need good policies in place, and then you must have education around that as well. So, you must educate your community about the policies that are in place. Then you also need accountability.
“Policies, education and accountability. This trio creates prevention. Everything that we do kind of focuses on those three pieces to create an end result of prevention.”
Clearly, it’s too soon to judge if progress has been made already. But it is evident that a lot of work lies ahead to restore athletes’ trust in the organisation.
Planning A Cultural Overhaul
It’s evident more time is needed to turn around an organisation previously accused of neglecting athletes’ welfare and wellbeing.
Yet Leung is clear to underline that treating its athletes with care is the association’s main priority.
She says: “It’s no longer about just focusing on the athletes’ technical development in terms of how they can best perform in the gym. Rather, it’s more so about how we help leverage and develop the sport in a way that the athletes can then develop into better people.
“Historically in general, most people haven’t looked at the sport in that way. Coaches are normally trained on the sport’s technical aspects but less on how you develop the overall human being.
“Part of the challenge around that, is training and developing the ecosystem around the athlete. This is to make sure everyone supports the athlete in this holistic manner to help them develop into better people, even beyond the sport.”
To do this, Leung points to the changes made to their Safe Sport policy, alongside a recently introduced Bill of Rights for its athletes.
“The Bill of Rights provides a framework in terms of the code of conduct, as to what everyone in the sport should be following. This includes details on how to treat athletes well, what rights they have regarding safe coaching, and the respect to have their voices heard.”
The recently announced appointments of Olympic medallists Alicia Sacramone Quinn and Chellsie Memmel to leadership roles aim to help create a healthy environment that supports its gymnasts while also being successful.
Mental Health Support
In an interview from earlier this year, Suni Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, talked about how it was difficult to adjust back into collegiate life after her popularity skyrocketed following the Tokyo Games.
Leung sympathises with her comments and here, she talks about her commitment to ensure young gymnasts like Lee get the support needed to navigate the pressures that come with success.
“Her rise was meteoric,” she says. “After being hired, I was restructuring the organisation. I felt there was really a need to create a senior level position that looked at the wellbeing of athletes throughout their gymnastics journey and even beyond it.
“This became the chief of athlete wellness [Kim Kranz]. They are responsible for building and providing resources to our athletes to help them in their journey that isn’t specifically technical in terms of the sport.
“They oversee the sport medicine side of things, but also both the nutritional and mental wellbeing of our athletes. The mental health resource side is something that’s still relatively new and that we’re still building out.
“A key focus of ours is identifying mental health resources for our athletes. Not only as they train to be better athletes, but also when they transition into a higher-level athlete. Or even as they move on outside of the sport.”
The Transgender Athletes Policy for USA Gymnastics
Since transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won the US national college title for the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year, the presence of transgender athletes in women’s sport has been a hotly debated topic.
Asked about how USA Gymnastics have approached the matter, Leung explains: “Firstly, different sports will have different policies on this. In our policy, I would say at the grassroots perspective, any athlete under the USA gymnastics umbrella, can participate within the gender they identify with. So that’s up to them.
“When they turn elite, that is when we switch over to the international rules. We’re still looking for guidance from the international community on this. The IOC hasn’t yet come out with a clear transgender policy. They probably may not ever because it’s difficult to create the same transgender policy for every sport. Especially given how many sports are not created equal.
“We are looking for guidance from the International [Gymnastics] Federation for that as well. But we want to create as inclusive a policy as possible.”
Being a Female Asian-American Sporting Executive in 2022
There are few female sporting executives in a role akin to Leung’s. It’s even rarer to find an Asian-American woman working at the height of elite sport across the world, let alone in the United States.
Reflecting on this, she says: “The sporting industry overwhelmingly is male dominated still and also by white men. It’s a little bit of a double minority for me being both female and Asian within this industry.
“I’m so grateful for having the opportunities I’ve had to get to where I am today. I think part of that is where I have worked. I’ve worked in environments that have been very inclusive and that have embraced diverse opinions, diverse races, diverse genders as well.
“I credit the folks that I’ve worked with in the past, for helping me to get to where I am today.”
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