A sports watchdog organization is facing criticism for its handling of a misconduct case involving a gymnastics coach who is a judge at this week’s Olympic trials in Minneapolis.
Anna Li, an uneven bars specialist who was an alternate for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and won a bronze medal at the 2012 U.S. Championships, is being investigated for alleged physical and verbal misconduct directed at the young athletes she coached. She was named as a trials judge in December by a USA Gymnastics selection committee.
The appointment had raised concerns from some gymnasts and parents about the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s reporting and investigatory processes. Both Li and her accusers say the organization — which is supposed to address misconduct in Olympic-affiliated sports — is not doing enough to move the investigation along.
“I was speechless. I believe it should not be allowed,” former gymnast Riley Milbrandt said about Li’s role in this week’s trials. “She should not be allowed the privilege of having a high-level judging placement like the 2024 Olympic Trials.”
Li’s lawyer, Russel Prince, said “there is no other organization in the United States that can leave a person or business under this type of cloud for years without an opportunity to fully resolve the matter.” He added, “This is yet another case that clearly illustrates the Center is wholly incapable of reasonable investigations or adjudications of administrative complaints. … [It] serves neither claimants or respondents in a fundamentally fair and lawful manner.”
The first complaints against Li and her mother, Jiani Wu, were filed in 2019 with SafeSport, but according to Prince it took the organization more than a year to provide them with a formal Notice of Allegation. The threshold for SafeSport’s decisions is lower than that of criminal courts and many individuals who receive bans from the organization are never criminally charged.
Prince, who also represents Wu, said the allegations against his clients were “categorically false” and that the SafeSport system is “irreparably broken.”
Parents and gymnasts filed formal complaints with SafeSport after Li was appointed in 2019 to the prestigious USA Gymnastics Athletes’ Council, which advocates for athletes and communicates information from USA Gymnastics to them. Li, accused of physical and verbal misconduct, resigned from the council shortly after being appointed amid the backlash. She has denied any wrongdoing.
At least 30 misconduct complaints have been filed against Li and Wu since 2019, according to the Orange County Register, whose investigation included a review of SafeSport documents, interviews with sources close to the investigation as well as former gymnasts and parents. The allegations against Li and Wu include hair-pulling, fat-shaming and punishment that resulted in physical injuries.
NBC News has not independently verified every accusation, but Milbrandt and Carmen Scanlon, a former Legacy Elite parent, were among those who filed complaints against Li and Wu with SafeSport. Both criticized the organization’s lack of progress on the case in interviews with NBC News.
“It all starts with SafeSport not getting back to you. They wait for it till the last minute, until it gets so bad that it explodes,” Milbrandt said. “It’s been five years, which is absolutely ridiculous.”
Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee established the U.S. Center for SafeSport in the wake of Larry Nassar’s 2017 trial, in part to streamline the misconduct reporting and investigatory processes. A former doctor for the U.S. women’s national team, Nassar was convicted of molesting hundreds of young girls and sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison. In her resignation from the Athletes’ Council, Li said she was among the hundreds of gymnasts abused by Nassar.
The organization has the ability to suspend people on an interim basis during an ongoing investigation to “mitigate potential risk to others in the sport community.”
Li has not been placed on suspension, interim or otherwise, by SafeSport.
She is listed as a head coach at Legacy Elite Gymnastics in Aurora, Illinois. Wu, who is a former U.S. national team coach and an Olympic medalist for China, is also listed as a head coach and owner with Li’s father, Yuejiu Li.
In response to Milbrandt’s request for an update in February, a representative for SafeSport told her they were in the “final phase of review” and could not provide an approximate date of decision regarding the investigation.
In a statement to NBC News, Ju’Riese Colón, the CEO of SafeSport, said, “We are working diligently to improve the process and provide more consistent communication. Those efforts, as well as any to streamline and expedite resolutions, cannot compromise our commitment to thorough and fair investigations.”
SafeSport declined to comment on the particulars of the investigation against Li and Wu in order to “protect the integrity” of the process.
In a statement provided to NBC News, a representative for USA Gymnastics said, “National Governing Bodies have no visibility into any case over which the Center [for SafeSport] accepts jurisdiction” and are “prohibited from investigating or taking any action that in any way may interfere with a case that is being handled by the Center.”
‘It totally destroyed my love for gymnastics’
Milbrandt, who trained at Legacy Elite from 2014 to 2019, alleged in a complaint to SafeSport, which NBC News has reviewed, that Wu and Li would punish her with hair-pulling, body-shaming, isolation, and overtraining her to the point of injury.
“When I didn’t feel comfortable going for my vault because my steps were off and I felt unsafe, the coaches made me stand against a wall for two hours and no one could talk to me,” Milbrandt told NBC News, describing her allegations.
She said the punishments she faced made her “feel incapable of doing [her] best because of constant fear” of retaliation.
“It totally destroyed my love for gymnastics,” Milbrandt said.
In the report that Milbrandt’s mother filed with SafeSport, she documented this incident and also alleged that Li and Wu told several girls they were “too fat,” had “too much cellulite” and if they could not perform a perfect bar routine, they were “too big.”
NBC News reviewed a report that Scanlon, the former Legacy Elite parent, filed to SafeSport in 2019 alleging that Wu physically abused her daughter in 2014, grabbing her by her ponytail and “forcibly pushing” her into the splits while she “sobbed uncontrollably.”
“When it looked like my daughter could not hold herself down any longer, [Wu] proceeded to push her back down and then she sat on my daughter’s back,” Scanlon said, describing her allegations.
Scanlon said her daughter complained of leg pain the day after the incident and was later diagnosed with a pulled hamstring.
Milbrandt’s mother alleged that Li and Wu often refused to heed medical advice from their gymnasts’ doctors, forcing them to train through injuries.
“[Physical] therapy lists were torn up and thrown in the garbage. Girls were never believed when they were hurting, in pain or had injuries,” Milbrandt’s mother said in the report. “Girls were told that they were faking the injury because they didn’t want to do a certain skill or they were afraid.”
Milbrandt left Legacy Elite in 2019 and moved to a new gym, where she said she “fell in love with the sport again.” She went on to compete in NCAA gymnastics at the University of Georgia but retired after one season.
Without a decision or interim suspension from SafeSport, Li is eligible for judging assignments from USA Gymnastics.
Coaches of youth sports aren’t licensed or regulated by government agencies. Some coaches continue to instruct children even if they face disciplinary action from SafeSport.
A 2022 NBC News investigation found that at least 20 people accused of misconduct and barred from participating in Olympic-affiliated events such as taekwondo were still working with children after SafeSport banned them from participating in Olympic activities.
Li Li Leung took over as CEO of USA Gymnastics in 2019 as part of the organization’s attempts at a cultural transformation.
“We reset our mission to be about building a community and culture of health, safety and excellence, with athletes who thrive in sport and in life,” Leung told NBC Sports last year, adding, “Our national team coaches are the most visible representation [of USAG], and a lot of coaches model them.”
The culture change, according to Milbrandt, must start with timely investigation of misconduct allegations.
“I am here to tell those coaches that they don’t scare me anymore, and I am not ashamed to put my name out there and boldly say, ‘Shame on you for how you treated me,’” Milbrandt said. “I was silenced then, but I will not be now.”