USA Gymnastics Will No Longer Train Athletes At The Karolyi Ranch

Just a few days after four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles said that Larry Nassar—the former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics physician who has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of criminal sexual misconduct—sexually abused her at the in Karolyi Ranch in Huntsville, Texas, USA Gymnastics announced that it would no longer be holding monthly training camps at the ranch.

“It is impossibly difficult to relive these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work toward my goal of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused,” Biles wrote in a statement that she posted to social media.

In an interview with Outside the Lines, fellow gold medalist Aly Raisman called for USA Gymnastics to stop sending athletes to the Karolyi Ranch.

The calls to close the ranch did not start this week. USA Gymnastics had previously announced that it was planning to leave the location once another home for the national team training center was found. But they didn’t appear to be in any rush to find a new place. It seems that Biles’s announcement and Raisman’s call has sped up the timeline for closing the ranch.

New CEO Kerry Perry, who attended one day of the ongoing Nassar sentencing hearings in Michigan, said in a press release, “It has been my intent to terminate this agreement since I began as president and CEO in December. Our most important priority is our athletes, and their training environment must reflect this. We are committed to a culture that empowers and supports our athletes.”

Next week’s national team training camp has been canceled as USA Gymnastics looks for a temporary and permanent locations for the national team training center.