AAU and Youth Sports Sexual Abuse Lawsuits: Coaches, Clubs, and Governing Bodies

Youth sports abuse cases usually involve a coach, trainer, or team doctor who used the trust and access of the sport, including travel, overnight tournaments, private lessons, and team hotel rooms, to groom and sexually abuse young athletes. The lawsuits also target the organizations that registered, insured, or oversaw the coach, arguing they failed to screen, train, supervise, or ban abusers. Claims typically include negligence, negligent supervision and retention, and sexual assault claims against the abuser.

Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)

The AAU has about 760,000 athletes and coaches nationwide, according to ProPublica, and runs major events in basketball, volleyball, and track. ProPublica and The Washington Post reported in August 2026 that the AAU did not implement most of the reforms it promised after a 2011 scandal involving its former president, that it does not verify whether coaches take the training it calls mandatory, that its abuse hotline routes to a general office line, and that it does not publish a list of banned coaches. The investigation found the AAU tried to force a sexual abuse lawsuit into arbitration as recently as 2024, in a Florida case brought by a teenage volleyball player that settled out of court.

Club and school sports

Many cases involve private clubs that register teams with the AAU or other bodies. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Barnstormers Basketball co-director Greg Stephen was sentenced to 180 years in prison for exploiting more than 400 young players, but a judge ruled that arbitration clauses barred families from suing the AAU itself.

Olympic sports

Gymnastics, swimming, figure skating, and taekwondo have all faced abuse cases. These sports are overseen by national governing bodies within the Olympic movement and by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

AAU

As of September 2026, no group lawsuit or settlement involving the AAU has been announced. Law firms are reviewing claims from former AAU athletes, and individual lawsuits may follow. The AAU declined to answer the reporters' questions about training and investigations, and said in a statement that it protects athletes through policies overseen by its compliance department, including identity checks and background screenings for non-athlete members.

The investigation described how serious misconduct allegations are decided by the AAU's Board of Review, four elected members and a chair whose names are not public. A former member who served for nearly 25 years said the board had no written standards for banning coaches and "just decided on our feelings." Reporters also found that the board cleared a top AAU executive accused of abuse by a former player without interviewing a single witness. After the reporters asked whether coach training was actually required, the AAU changed its website to describe the training as encouraged rather than mandatory. These findings, if proven in court, could support claims that the AAU did not act reasonably to protect children.

USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar

The Nassar litigation is resolved. Michigan State University agreed on May 16, 2018 to a $500 million settlement with 332 survivors, with $75 million set aside for future claimants. On December 13, 2021, a federal bankruptcy court in Indianapolis confirmed a $380 million settlement between Nassar survivors and USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and their insurers. On April 23, 2024, the Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement of 139 claims over the FBI's failure to act on reports in 2015 and 2016.

Boy Scouts of America

Scouting is the largest youth-program abuse case. The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and a $2.46 billion plan was approved in 2022 for roughly 82,000 survivors. A Third Circuit panel largely upheld it in May 2025, and the Supreme Court declined to review it on January 12, 2026. The organization, now called Scouting America, said it could then expedite payments.

Other Olympic sports

U.S. Figure Skating paid $1.45 million to settle a lawsuit by former skater Adam Schmidt, who alleged coach Richard Callaghan abused him starting at age 14 in 1999. In 2017, three taekwondo athletes won a $60 million default judgment in Los Angeles against their former coach, Marc Gitelman, although the court initially dismissed USA Taekwondo and the U.S. Olympic Committee as defendants.

You may have a claim if an adult connected to your sport sexually abused you when you were under 18. That includes head and assistant coaches, private trainers, team doctors and athletic trainers, chaperones, and club officials. The abuse can include touching, sexual contact during massages or treatment, exposure, explicit messages, or assault at tournaments, practices, or the coach's home.

• Organization links: the coach worked for or registered through an AAU club, a travel team, a school, a gym, or a governing body such as USA Gymnastics or U.S. Figure Skating.
• Warning signs: the coach had been banned or suspended by another organization, prior complaints were made, or the club allowed one-on-one travel or shared rooms.
• Harm: PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, or leaving the sport.

ProPublica and The Post found that the AAU is not a sanctioned national governing body, so it is not overseen by SafeSport and does not follow SafeSport suspensions or bans. That means a coach banned in an Olympic sport may still have coached an AAU team, which can strengthen a negligence claim against whoever let them.

Claims are harder when the abuser had no real connection to an organization, when the club has dissolved without insurance, or when the organization can show it had no reason to know. Survivors who already received money in the Nassar or Boy Scouts settlements generally cannot recover again from those same defendants.

The Associated Press reported that, counting the $138.7 million federal deal, about $1 billion had been set aside by various organizations to compensate Nassar survivors. Averages in group settlements can be misleading; trusts typically score each claim based on the abuse and its effects.

In the AAU context, recovery can be limited by insurance. ProPublica and The Post reported that the Barnstormers club's AAU-provided insurance capped sexual abuse payouts at $1 million, which the families' lawyer said worked out to a few thousand dollars per victim. A $60 million judgment against an individual coach, like the taekwondo case, may be hard to collect if the coach has few assets.

Any recovery is reduced by attorney fees, and settlement money can affect needs-based benefits; see whether a settlement affects SSI or Medicaid. No amount is guaranteed.

The Safe Sport Act. The Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, Public Law 115-126, became law February 14, 2018. It gave the U.S. Center for SafeSport authority over abuse in Olympic-movement sports and extended the federal civil deadline for child victims of certain federal sex crimes. The AAU sits outside that system.

The federal civil remedy. Under 18 U.S.C. 2255, a person who was a victim as a minor of certain federal crimes, including sexual exploitation of children, child sex trafficking, and transporting a minor across state lines for sexual activity, can sue for actual damages or liquidated damages of $150,000, plus attorney fees. Since September 16, 2022, there has been no time limit to file a claim under 18 U.S.C. 2255. Many youth sports cases involve travel to out-of-state tournaments, which can bring these federal statutes into play.

Arbitration. An arbitration clause requires disputes to go to a private arbitrator instead of court. The AAU's registration forms include such clauses. ProPublica and The Post noted that forcing sex abuse claims into arbitration is rare at other major youth sports organizations and was mostly banned by a 2022 federal law.

State law. Most claims against clubs and organizations are state negligence claims, subject to each state's statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse.

Deadlines depend on where the abuse happened and which law you sue under:

• Federal 18 U.S.C. 2255 claims: no filing deadline, but only for the listed federal crimes.
• New York: childhood sexual abuse claims until age 55.
• California: for abuse before 2024, generally until age 40 or five years after discovering the injury was caused by the abuse; no deadline for abuse on or after January 1, 2024.
• Maryland: no civil deadline for child sexual abuse since October 1, 2023, with damage caps.
• Other states: deadlines range widely, and some states have opened revival windows for expired claims.

Settled cases have their own closed deadlines. The Boy Scouts bankruptcy claim deadline passed years ago, and the Nassar settlements are closed to new claimants except under their own terms. If an organization you have a claim against files for bankruptcy, its claim deadline can be short. Reporting abuse to the U.S. Center for SafeSport or to police is separate from a lawsuit and does not pause your filing deadline.

1. Write down the details. The coach, team, club, league or governing body, the years, and tournament locations, especially any out-of-state travel.
2. Save communications. Old texts, social media messages, and emails from the coach can be key evidence of grooming.
3. Check whether the coach was banned. The public SafeSport disciplinary list and news reports may show sanctions by other organizations.
4. Find your registration paperwork if you can, including any AAU forms, since arbitration terms may matter.
5. Do not sign releases from a club, league, or insurer without independent advice.

For how abuse claims differ from class actions, see class action vs. mass tort. Related pages cover institutional sexual abuse lawsuits, church abuse lawsuits, and online exploitation claims such as Roblox and Discord exploitation.

Best Class Actions is not a law firm. A free case review takes about two minutes and can connect you with independent attorneys who handle youth sports abuse cases.