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American gymnasts Aly Raisman and Jordyn Weiber addressed their attacker, Larry Nassar, during his sentencing hearing.
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Mary Bono, former Congressman, has been appointed Acting Executive Director and President of USA Gymnastics.(Photo: Stephen J Boitano, Gannett)

Inexplicably and incredibly, USA Gymnastics is back in the news. The organization that provoked the biggest sexual abuse scandal in the history of sport announced Friday that it hired as acting director a director of the law firm who helped the governing body to cover Larry Nassar's attacks. against many young gymnasts.

This is an unsustainable decision that must be canceled immediately. The new CEO, former parliamentarian Mary Bono, must step down or the national governing body must remove her from office. There is no third option. The confidence of the athletes and the nation in an organization on the brink of moral collapse depends on this swift action.

Bono's LinkedIn profile calls her the director of the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels from March 2013 until today. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star reported that the The company worked with USA Gymnastics officials to provide "false excuses" for Nassar's absence at major gymnastics events in 2015 instead of revealing to parents and gymnasts that Nassar was undergoing a investigation for sexual abuse of children.

It does not matter that Bono does not know anything about it. It does not matter that she has worked at the company's Washington office to deal with legislation strategies and policies. USA Gymnastics is at the heart of a crisis we have never seen in the history of the US Olympic movement. It can not be directed, even on a temporary basis, by anyone who has links to this scandal, links that Bono certainly has in any way associated with the law firm. lawyers.

More: Simone Biles is not happy with the new interim CEO of USA Gymnastics

More: USA Gymnastics Appoints Mary Bono Acting President and Chief Executive Officer

One would think that the USA Gymnastics board would have been extremely sensitive to these issues, especially after getting rid of former CEO Kerry Perry, who turned out to be a PR nightmare.

There must be thousands of qualified Americans for this position who have not been associated with Faegre Baker Daniels.

So what did they do? They selected someone who worked at the law firm.

If it were not so sad for the gymnasts that the governing body is supposed to serve, it would be absolutely hilarious.

There is more. It turns out that a month ago, Bono tweeted a picture of what appears to be his criticism of Nike's endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick, by blackening the Nike logo on his golf shoes. The tweet, well cleared of the day on his Twitter feed, narrowly escaped the advice of the USA Gymnastics during his background check of Bono.

Bono's tweet, however, did not escape the multiple Olympic gold medalist and world champion Simone Biles, who admired Twitter.

"Drip mouth," she writes. "Do not worry, it's not like we need an American president of smarter gymnastics, sponsors or whatever."

Biles, a Nike athlete herself, was referring to the fact that USA Gymnastics still did not have a clothing sponsor after several big companies abandoned it after the scandal that Nassar had assaulted hundreds of girls and young women , including Biles.

There is also the issue of encouraging athletes to continue talking after Nassar, an open question following Bono's tweet that seemed to criticize Kaepernick's protests.

Bono said she regretted "deeply" the tweet, and the USA Gymnastics board said it was "disappointed" by its message, which would have been missed due to an "oversight".

My God, what a waste.