U.S.A. Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body, which guides children from the neighborhood gym to the Olympics, routinely failed to notify law enforcement officials about allegations of sexual abuse by its coaches, according to an investigation by The Indianapolis Star.

In a report published online Thursday, The Star uncovered four instances in which gymnastics officials were warned about suspected abuse by coaches but did not alert the authorities. Those four coaches went on to abuse at least 14 underage gymnasts, the report said.

The report raised the possibility that the organization’s reliance on firsthand accusations — from either a gymnast or a parent — before alerting the authorities violated laws requiring people to report suspected abuse. While each state has its own laws, Indiana, where U.S.A. Gymnastics is based, requires “any person who has reason to believe that a child is a victim of abuse or neglect” to report it.

In one case cited in the report, William McCabe, a coach in Georgia, continued to work with athletes for six years after the organization dismissed the first of four complaints about him in 1998. He pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of sexual exploitation of children and making false statements and is now serving a 30-year sentence.