Scandal-hit USA Gymnastics says Perry out as CEO

(Reuters) - USA Gymnastics said on Tuesday that its chief executive, Kerry Perry, would resign after less than a year in the job as the sport’s national governing body tries to recover from a scandal in which one of its team doctors sexually abused hundreds of female athletes.

The group had hired Perry in December, around the time former national team doctor Larry Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually abusing more than 100 gymnasts, including Olympic gold medal-winning gymnasts Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.

USA Gymnastics’ full board resigned early this year after revelations that officials there had turned a blind eye to the accusations.

“In the wake of horrific events that have impacted our athletes and the entire gymnastics community, USA Gymnastics has made progress is stabilizing itself,” Karen Golz, chair of the USA Gymnastics Board, said in a statement.

Golz also thanked Perry “for her leadership under very difficult circumstances.”

The USA Gymnastics board will name an interim CEO before assembling a committee made of some of its members, athletes and others to search for a permanent replacement, she said.

Nassar, who also was a doctor for athletes at Michigan State University, was convicted last year of molesting gymnasts in incidents dating as far back as the 1990s and was sentenced in January to an effective life term in prison.

The sentencing followed an extraordinary weeklong hearing that saw a parade of Nassar victims tell their stories in raw and unflinching terms, describing how he used medical treatments as a cover to justify penetrating their bodies with his fingers.