Two former Olympic athletes have been banned from coaching gymnastics over their shocking abuse of young students.
Anna Li, 36, was suspended by the US Center for SafeSport from all USA Gymnastics-affiliated training for nine months and her mother Jiani Wu, 58, for one year.
Wu's husband, Yuejin Li, 66, was placed on nine months' probation but not suspended, and will continue to run his Legacy Elite gym in Aurora, Illinois.
SafeSport found a “preponderance of evidence” that the trio physically and mentally abused young gymnasts over many years.
There were no allegations of sexual abuse, such as those against former Olympic coach Larry Nassar, leading to SafeSport being established to investigate abuse claims.
Wu is a former Chinese Olympic medalist and former coach of the US national gymnastics team and Li, a former member of the US national team and eight-time UCLA All-American.
Li and Wu were suspended following a nearly six-year investigation into complaints to USA Gymnastics that became public in 2019.
They and the parents of the abused gymnasts complained about the length of the investigation, which SafeSport boss Ju'Riese Colon admitted “simply took too long.”
Anna Li competes on the beam during Day 2 of the 2012 US Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials on June 29, 2012 in San Jose, California.
Wu Jiani performs in the women's balance beam event during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
At least 15 people filed complaints and SafeSport collected about 50 witnesses, but other gymnasts and parents said they did not report abuse or stopped cooperating because the agency did not respond.
Others said they feared Li would badmouth them at universities or grade them in judging national or regional competitions to harm their careers.
SafeSport found that the gymnasts and their parents were “credible in recounting their experiences in the gym” and provided photographs to back up their claims.
'Their accounts were corroborated by other witnesses, and independent accounts of the same generalized themes were given to the centre.
“For the most part (Li and Wu) denied the allegations… and provided information in an effort to discredit the plaintiffs and their parents.”
SafeSport's decision notice, published Wednesday, and complaints filed by parents detailed the shocking abuse.
Li once yelled at a girl to “get your fat ass out of the vault” and told her “you're too fat to get over the vault.”
Riley Milbrandt, one of the gymnasts who went public about the abuse she suffered, was once pushed by Wu while doing a handstand and fell onto the balance beam.
On another occasion, when the coaches were dissatisfied with her performance, they made her stand against a wall for two hours.
Wu told the other gymnasts that they would also face that punishment if they talked to her.
Wu pushed a student against a beam, causing injuries; forced a student with a broken foot to take off her orthopedic boot and run; Excessive conditioning is assigned as punishment.
Li Yuejiu and Wu Jiani are co-owners of the Legacy Elite gym in Aurora, Illinois, where the abuse occurred.
A similar complaint was made about Li kicking a student out of practice and instructing the class not to talk to her, saying “she's being a baby.”
Other times, coaches called athletes scared cats, “overly mental,” “dumb” and asked them if they were “stupid,” according to SafeSport complaints.
Another punishment when Li or Wu thought the gymnasts weren't trying hard enough was to sit in an inflatable pool in a corner of the gym.
Even his time in the bathroom was restricted and closely monitored. Gymnasts were only allowed one per practice, all of which were recorded on a record sheet, and if they took more than two minutes they were punished with additional exercises.
There was also rampant physical abuse, according to the complaints, SafeSport interviews and the decision notice.
“Hair-pulling and girls were constantly embarrassed,” one parent wrote in a complaint, and another wrote that he witnessed “hair-pulling under the guise of physical training.”
One claim recounted in detail was when Wu threw a girl to the ground by her ponytail when she was unhappy with her performance in training.
Carmen Scanlon, the mother of a 10-year-old gymnast who she said had been abused, said her daughter was thrown to the ground over a beam.
“Jiani pulled her from the high beam, threw her to the ground, grabbed her arm, dragged her to some mats and then sat on her back,” he told the newspaper. Orange County Registry.
'I was there. I saw it. I was stupid. I didn't know what to do. We should have left (the club) that day. We left a month later.
Another complaint alleged that “a girl had duct tape put over her mouth for 2 hours.”
Li competes on the uneven bars during the Division I Women's Gymnastics Championships held at the University of Florida.
Sometimes the abuse led to injuries, and even when athletes were injured in training accidents, they were told to continue.
“The coaches thought they were above the doctors,” one parent said in a complaint to SafeSport.
'They told the girls that they know more than the doctors because of how long they have been in the sport.
'They said they never needed lists of doctors, that they knew how to treat all injuries. The therapy lists were torn up and thrown away.'
On another occasion, a gymnast who was asked to do a 10-minute handstand fell and hit her head, knocking her unconscious and giving her whiplash, but Wu forced her to continue swinging on the bars.
The decision notice summarized the claims SafeSport found credible against the two coaches, along with Yuejin Li.
Wu pushed a student against a beam, causing injuries; forced a student with a broken foot to take off her orthopedic boot and run; He assigned excessive conditioning as punishment.
He also yelled at and insulted athletes, embarrassed athletes, and kicked one athlete out of practice on a weekly basis.
Li shoved one athlete in the stomach and grabbed her by the legs or stomach and pulled her off the high bar, insulted five athletes, embarrassed the gymnasts, and assigned them excessive conditioning.
He also forced students to remove casts, splints and orthopedic boots and to train and compete with broken arms, toes and feet, and forced one with a broken back to do 10 rope climbs.
Yuejin Li was found to have thrown a shoe, slapped and grabbed a gymnast by the neck, called a student a “crybaby,” and engaged in the same type of excessive conditioning such as punishment and body shaming as Li and Wu.
During the lengthy investigation, Li received numerous high-profile assignments from USA Gymnastics' judge selection committee, despite the avalanche of allegations.
They included seven in 2024, including the Olympic trials, the U.S. championships and a World Cup.
“Nothing has happened to them. Nothing,” Scanlon said.
'USA Gymnastics doesn't care about kids unless they are at the highest level. Anna has been allowed to do whatever she wants despite a large number of accusations against her.
“The complaints against her are so graphic and detailed that I don't know how anyone can ignore them.”
Scanlon told the Chicago Tribune that she didn't even find out about the decision until the last minute and that she wasn't kept up to date with the investigation as promised.
“She was ruthless, so I don't think 12 months suspension is enough,” he said.
Inside the Legacy Elite gym where all the abuse happened
Li and Wu's attorney, Russell Prince of Prince Sports Law in Florida, said they would appeal the decision, which could take 10 to 14 weeks.
In the meantime, they would move away from Legacy Elite and be replaced by “other Olympians looking to come in” and help the “tons of high-level, elite trainers” on the gym staff.
He insisted to the Tribune that both complied with the investigation “without reservation” although “the accusations are categorically false.”
Prince claimed that they were not informed of the complaints until a year after the investigation began and that they were last interviewed three years ago.
Colón apologized to the parents and gymnasts involved in the investigation for the time it took to complete.
“The Center takes each matter seriously and works to ensure investigations are thorough, expeditious and trauma-sensitive,” he said.
'There are cases where a matter is perceived to be taking 'too long' when in reality it is the nature of this complex work.
Then there are times, like this one, where it simply took too long, and I regret that it took almost six years to provide answers to athletes and the gymnastics community.
“We are continuing with the recently implemented systems… to ensure this does not happen in the future.”