Sports

Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the Senior Women's competition of the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships.

USA Gymnastics made a miraculous comeback — but is it actually safer for Olympians?

In 2017, the Larry Nassar scandal rocked the Olympic community.

Hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse against the former USA Gymnastics doctor underscored how vulnerable athletes are — particularly when they're minors.

That year, Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee had a solution.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport was founded to investigate and respond to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct. The goal was for predators like Larry Nassar to never harm young athletes again.

Now, seven years later, SafeSport is facing scrutiny of its own — over whether it's made good on that promise.

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Tested: Questions of a Physical Nature

Episode 2: We go back almost 100 years, to the beginning of women's inclusion in elite sports. It turns out that men had an odd variety of concerns about women athletes. Some doubted these athletes were even women at all. And their skepticism resulted in the first policies requiring sex testing. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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