Nancy Armour | USA TODAY

USA TODAY

How many more chances is USA Gymnastics going to be given to get it wrong?

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Another failed CEO? Another hire that has to be walked back because the powers that be didn’t take the time to consider — or care — about the optics? Another misstep that adds more layers of pain to survivors who’ve already been through more than enough?

Mary Bono’s sudden resignation Tuesday after five days of intense criticism reinforced what those who’ve paid, oh, 30 seconds of attention have known for months: the folks running USA Gymnastics are not equipped for the monumental job required to put the organization back on the right path, and the U.S. Olympic Committee must step in.

Get rid of the board, which even in reconfigured form has shown little will or initiative for substantive change. Get rid of chief operating officer Ron Galimore, who should have been fired as soon as The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, published a story detailing the federation’s efforts to provide cover for Larry Nassar and Galimore’s role in it.

Get rid of every other person in a position of power who has either defended or clung to the old way of doing things — the very culture that got USA Gymnastics into this mess in the first place. Get rid of whoever USA Gymnastics is paying to advise them because, two years in, they have somehow managed to make what was already a toxic wasteland immeasurably worse.

Decertify USA Gymnastics, and bring in someone not beholden to anyone in the current federation to begin the rebuild. And while this should be a given but for some reason isn’t, steer clear of anyone with any ties to Faegre Baker Daniels, the law firm that cooked up those Nassar cover stories.

Recommending the USOC decertify USA Gymnastics is not a call made lightly or with any sort of pleasure. But there is too much at stake for the athletes, the young women and men who are supposed to be USA Gymnastics’ focus yet continue to bear the brunt of its ineptitude.

At competitions, the first questions they get are about the federation and its direction rather than their training or the Olympics that are fast approaching. The women went much of the year without the monthly training camps they have said make them stronger both as gymnasts and American teammates because USA Gymnastics somehow thought it was fine to continue using the Karolyi ranch, where some of Nassar’s abuse occurred — and didn’t have a backup plan when it was forced to see that it wasn’t.

The men and women who are leaving this week for the world championships, where they will try and lock up spots for the Tokyo Olympics, will be wearing old warm-ups because USA Gymnastics still doesn’t have an apparel sponsor. Or any other major sponsors, for that matter.

And while it’s admirable that Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of her and every other generation and a survivor of Nassar’s horrific abuse, has used her status and voice to shame the federation into doing what should be obvious, it is unfair that she’s been forced to be the adult in this romper room.

Whether it was closing the Karolyi ranch, giving a nod to survivors at the national championships or pointing out the flaws in Bono’s hiring, the 21-year-old Biles has said and done the right thing, time and time again. Why, then, is it so hard for USA Gymnastics?

“We remain steadfast in our efforts to fundamentally transform the organization at all levels to ensure athlete safety and well-being is at the heart of everything we do,” the USA Gymnastics board said in a statement after Bono’s resignation.

A lovely sentiment. At what point does the federation actually start?

The only thing USA Gymnastics has proven itself capable of is stumbling and failing, and that’s not good enough. The athletes deserve better, and so do the survivors.

Speaking of those survivors, USA Gymnastics needs to settle with them as soon as possible. The federation has pointed to the ongoing mediation as reason for keeping the survivors at arm’s length, but all that’s done has highlighted the structural problems that caused all this.

There might still be a chance to save USA Gymnastics. But the USOC will have to save the federation from itself, first.

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