美国国家公共电台 NPR 4 Accusers Sue Taekwondo Champion Brothers For Alleged Sexual Abuse

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

An update now on a widening sexual misconduct scandal in taekwondo. The former Olympic coach Jean Lopez and his gold medal-winning brother, Steven Lopez, have both been accused of sexual assault. Four women - former elite¹ athletes - are now suing the brothers in Colorado federal court. Heidi Gilbert is one of the plaintiffs.

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HEIDI GILBERT: Jean and Steven have done horrible things to girls, and they're still able to compete and coach. How does that even make any sense to anybody?

SIMON: After an initial NPR report, Jean Lopez was banned from coaching. But as Alexandra Starr tells us, his brother - still a member of the national taekwondo team.

ALEXANDRA STARR, BYLINE²: Nina Zampetti started training with Steven Lopez in the late 1990s, when she was 9 years old and he was 17. A few years later, Lopez surprised her with a gift.

NINA ZAMPETTI: He gave me the - a ring. And he told me that when I got older that we would be together.

STARR: Those gestures were punctuated³ with tough authoritarianism⁴. Zampetti remembers on one occasion, when she didn't run to Lopez when he called for her, he ordered her to hold a headstand position.

ZAMPETTI: I felt like I was there forever. I felt like I did something so terribly wrong.

STARR: She wonders now if that experience conditioned her for an encounter with Lopez when she was 14 and he was 22.

ZAMPETTI: He asked me to give him oral sex. And I did.

STARR: She says the experience was deeply violating and inappropriate. Steven Lopez did not respond to requests for comment. Zampetti quit taekwondo a year after the incident. Last week, she filed a police report in Texas outlining these allegations.

In a separate case, four former taekwondo athletes filed a lawsuit⁵ last night, not just against the Lopezes, but also USA Taekwondo and the U.S. Olympic Committee. The lawsuit asserts that the failure to protect the athletes was tantamount to sex trafficking because some of the alleged⁶ abuse happened overseas.

Ronda Sweet served on the board of USA Taekwondo from 2006 to 2010. She says in the past, the organization's senior staff did not sufficiently⁷ investigate the Lopezes when allegations about them surfaced.

RONDA SWEET: They didn't want to know. They tried to cover up.

STARR: Sweet says there was a financial incentive⁸ not to act. The U.S. Olympic Committee, which oversees⁹ USA Taekwondo and 47 other sports governing bodies, followed a money-for-medals formula in allocating¹⁰ resources. Steven Lopez competed in five Olympic Games, winning three medals. That meant more money for the taekwondo governing body. Steve McNally became executive director of the organization last year.

STEVE MCNALLY: USA Taekwondo's now aiming to become an example of how to get this right.

STARR: It is far from the only Olympic sport grappling with the issue. Gymnastics, swimming and figure skating have all dealt with allegations of sexual abuse. The USOC could not be reached for comment. McNally of USA Taekwondo said he'd need to review the complaint before responding, but his organization will launch a media campaign next month about appropriate athlete-coach relationships.

MCNALLY: We have to be, maybe, more vigilant¹¹ than some other sports that don't have that master-student relationship - that dominance built into the sport.

STARR: Investigating allegations of sexual misconduct now falls to the U.S. Center for SafeSport. That's the non-profit created last year to handle allegations of abuse across Olympic sports. The center banned Jean Lopez last month for sexual misconduct. While most investigations¹² take two months on average, SafeSport first started looking into Steven Lopez 14 months ago. Staff there declined to talk about the status of the inquiry¹³, which is their policy on all active cases. For NPR News, I'm Alexandra Starr.

1 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 authoritarianism   

权力主义，独裁主义

参考例句：

• Modern authoritarianism is a vestige of traditional personal rule. 现代独裁主义则是传统的个人统治的残余。
• In its latter days it was a byword for authoritarianism, incompetence, and corruption. 在后期，它是独裁、无能和腐化的代号。

5 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

6 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

7 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

8 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

9 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

10 allocating   

分配，分派( allocate的现在分词 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• Administrative practice generally follows the judicial model in allocating burdens of proof. 在分配举证责任方面，行政实践通常遵循司法模式。
• A cyclical multiplexing technique, allocating resources in fixed-time slices. 以固定的时间片分配资源的循环复用技术。

11 vigilant   

adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的

参考例句：

• He has to learn how to remain vigilant through these long nights.他得学会如何在这漫长的黑夜里保持警觉。
• The dog kept a vigilant guard over the house.这只狗警醒地守护着这所房屋。

12 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

13 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。