♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, protecting athletes. >> he like threw me on the bed and then kind of jumped on top of me. >> as olympians go for gold in beijing, questions being raised about the organization created to protect young athletes from sexual abuse. >> it should be a new safe sport, not the old safe sport. >> the abc news/espn investigation. channing tatum. his new film "dog" a tribute to the military. >> just take the crazy down, just one notch, that's it. >> spending time with those in uniform. >> i appreciate you guys more than i can possibly tell you. >> and showing off his sense of adventure. >> oh my goodness. but first, the "nightline 5."

number one in just 60 seconds.

♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. the olympic dream starts young for many athletes and so do the sacrifices. for some, that comes with a painful price. tonight, an abc news/espn investigation into the u.s. center for safe sport, the

organization created to protect athletes that some say isn't doing enough. here's abc's david scott. >> hey! >> reporter: heidi gilbert has always been a fighter. >> starting in eighth grade, i would get off the school bus, grab a snack, grab my tae kwon do bag, get to the tae kwon do school, and train until 9:00 at night. >> reporter: from a young age she dreamed of competing on the world stage. >> all i wanted to do was win the olympics. >> reporter: hard work began to pay off when at 16, heidi started training with the national team under the watchful eye of coach gene lopez. >> gene lopez, united states olympic coach for the sport of tae kwon do. >> behind the medals and media attention, gene lopez allegedly hid a dark secret. one that heidi and the watchdog organization created to protect

young athletes like her are still grappling with more than a decade later. at 20, heidi won a gold medal at the 2002 pan american games in ecuador, a giant step towards making her olympic dreams a reality. but then heidi says she found herself alone with lopez in his hotel room after the >> he like through me on the bed and kind of jumped on top of me. then he came behind me and dry humped me. and ejaculated in his pants. >> reporter: shocked and struggling to comprehend what she says happened, she initially kept the alleged assault a secret. >> since the age of 11 years old, i'd had this dream of going to the olympics. and that's what i had been working so hard for. i wasn't willing to jeopardize my chances of winning an olympic gold medal. >> reporter: but it turned out heidi was not alone.

over the course of the next decade, heidi and multiple other women came forward to report similar claims of sexual misconduct against gene lopez. lopez has denied the allegations. the governing body of the sport, usa tae kwon do, promised to investigate. but the 2016 summer olympics were fast approaching, and usa tae kwon do permitted gene lopez to coach the u.s. team despite being under investigation. >> it's like, oh, okay, so money and medals are what's important to you, not what happened to the victims. >> reporter: the sports world was just waking up to the depths of an epidemic it had long ignored. >> olympic scandal, the bombshell allegations against a former team usa gymnastics doctor -- >> reporter: sexual abuse scandal in usa gymnastics was sparking headlines around the world, and there was a growing consensus that sports federations could not be trusted to police themselves.

olympic leaders were forced to take action. >> everyone loves a champion. >> reporter: they created the u.s. center for safe sport, a new independent watchdog organization to investigate allegations of abuse and misconduct. heidi's case would be one of its first big tests. was that a relief to you, that finally there would be some accountability? >> yeah, absolutely. i was really excited. i thought, great, this is going to really change things and make a difference. i had been abused, i had -- all my dreams had been crushed. >> all of this had already cost you your career? >> yeah. >> reporter: according to confidential documents, in 2018, safe sports investigators concluded that jean lopez had engaged in, quote, a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct by an older coach abusing his power to groom, manipulate, and sexually abuse

younger female athletes. safe sport banned lopez from coaching for life. >> i felt like we were changing things. and we were kind of the trailblazers for sexual misconduct that was happening in our sport. >> reporter: but that feeling was short-lived. lopez appealed and the case went into arbitration. heidi declined to testify at the hearing at the advice of her attorneys, and despite the evidence she provided during safe sport's earlier investigation, the arbitrator said they could not assess her credibility and opted to overturn lopez's ban. was that hard to accept, hard to live with? >> as a victim, you're just kind of floundering, right? you're out there in the ocean swimming and you're like, where do i turn? who do you trust? who is going to hold anyone accountable? >> reporter: lopez maintained his innocence in an interview with a local fox tv station

following the ban's reversal. >> it was a relief, because the whole time we knew and i knew that i am innocent of any of the allegations, the false accusations, that have been made against myself. >> reporter: safe sport says such reversals are rare outliers among the hundreds of sanctions they impose. an abc/espn investigation found nearly half of those who appealed their sanctions see them reduced or removed. the reasons for the reversals vary. but according to howard jacobs, an attorney who has represented dozens of accused coaches and athletes in safe sport proceedings, including jean lopez, chief among them is safe sport's own rules. >> if you have these old cases, then they have to prove essentially that there's a violation of the criminal law that was applicable at the time. and that's where you can get into some kind of strange rules

that have to be applied today. looking at standards from a long time ago. >> i'm trying to be respectful here. i don't -- i don't like safe sport. >> reporter: cases like heidi's have made safe sport critics out of some of the world's most prominent athlete advocates like former olympic gold medalist aly raisman. >> if you're safe sport and you are funded by the organization you're investigating, it's not -- it's -- they're likely not going to do the right thing. it's just a complete mess. and the priority doesn't seem to be safety and well-being of athletes, it seems to be protecting usa gymnastics and doing everything to keep the pr. >> reporter: john manly, who represented hundreds of larry nassar's victims, is a vocal critic of safe sport and questions its independence from the sport's power structure. >> i believe safe sport is there for one reason, which is to protect the u.s. olympic and paralympic committee and its governing bodies like usa

gymnastics. >> reporter: he recommends that his clients decline to participate in safe sport proceedings and pursue justice elsewhere. >> it's an organization that's solely designed to give them public relations and political cover. and frankly does an excellent job of keeping the facts secret. >> reporter: safe sport spokesman dan hill strongly objected to manly's characterization and suggested that attorneys with a financial incentive to pursue cases in the civil courts have been, quote, recklessly undermining the mission of the center. senators richard blumenthal and jerry moran spearheaded legislation signed by president trump in 2020 designed to strengthen safe sport. >> no athlete, whether an amateur athlete or an olympian, should have to endure abuse and mistreatment to pursue the sport they love. >> reporter: when we spoke to them, they expressed serious concerns about its effectiveness. >> there is simply no way that

safe sport can be given a passing grade for how it has acted in the past. >> every athlete we visited with, every victim, had little or no faith in safe sport. >> reporter: they believe more transparency is needed to protect young athletes. >> u.s. center for safe sports cannot do its job, simply cannot do its job, unless it makes its work public. >> reporter: safe sport keeps a public database of currently sanctioned individuals, but there's no public record of investigative findings or arbitration decisions. >> these young athletes deserve better protections. it should be a new safe sport, not the old safe sport. >> reporter: safe sport's ceo, jarise colon, initially agreed to an on-camera interview with ultimately declined to speak with us. safe sport's spokesman responded to a series of questions via email and phone calls, defending the organization's track record, touting hundreds of sanctions imposed to date, and saying the center is, quote, motivated to

earn the trust of athletes and their advocates. it is a first of its kind organization in the world, and it's four years in taking on a massive challenge. there are growing pains but the fact of the matter is it's an incredible success story." >> safesport doesn't have my confidence and trust right now. but it can if it shows results. i think the jury's still out. >> 16-year-old tae kwon do competitex competitor comes to you and says, something happened, can i trust safesport with my story? what do you tell her? >> i would recommend getting a lawyer and filing a police report. >> reporter: heidi did hire a lawyer and sued lopez and usa tae kwon do, along with several other women, in 2018.

she now coaches here in seattle. she's no longer affiliated with the federation. recently she got some big news. usa tae kwon do settled their lawsuit with no admission of wrongdoing for millions of dollars. >> now comes the healing, right? where us as victims, we can actually get the help that we need to be able to heal from what happened to us. >> feel vindicated? >> yeah. >> reporter: lopez is free to continue coaching. and remains active in the sport in southern california. >> our thanks to david. up next, channing tatum, how he's trying to honor men and women in uniform. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪

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♪ channing tatum is known for playing tough guys. the type of heroes he's now honoring. both in his new film and in his free time. my "nightline" coanchor, juju chang, caught up with him. >> grab right here, do a sumo squat. >> reporter: channing tatum is suiting up. here at fort benning, georgia. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: when asked if you want to zip line off a 34-foot paratrooper platform alongside him? the answer's yes. channing, have you done this before? >> i've jumped out of planes but

i've never jumped this. >> reporter: before we know it, it's go time. >> go! there you go. >> oh my goodness. >> go! >> it was fun. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> yeah, really fun. >> reporter: the hollywood hunk is on a national uso tour, bonding with soldiers and their families. one firing range at a time. >> better than the fruit ninjas. now we're getting into "jackass" material, i love it. >> take the crazy down, just one notch. >> reporter: channing tatum is here to launch his movie about a military service dog. he's part ambassador, meeting proud skiing olympians -- >> what? it is cool. >> reporter: touring the base. >> two stars mean this guy jumped into combat twice. >> can i take a picture of that? >> please do.

>> reporter: spending time with gold star families. >> deployed june 4th, died october 8th. i'm sorry. i normally am good at talking about it. but this year will be 11 years. 10 was hard. 10 sucked. >> reporter: this is tatum's second uso tour. his first was in afghanistan in 2015. >> what the uso does specifically is just try and lighten any amount of that monotony. i wish that i was a singer or something like that. >> well, you're a dancer, but i don't know -- >> i don't think they want me to cha cha cha it up. >> reporter: tatum's new film "dog" is a classic road trip buddy movie about an airborne ranger escorting a war dog to his handler's funeral. >> what did i say about using your mom's weights? >> i'm trying to look good for you, mom. >> i'm trying to say, i don't know, more quads. >> going to get you, baby brother. >> this is a pg-13 comedy on some level. >> right. >> yet you touch on seer yous

things. >> i wouldn't ooms call this -- it's not a war movie. he's fighting his own war in his own way as we all do. but we also wanted it to be a hopeful movie. >> there was a profound link between handler and dog. >> reporter: the film inspired by "war dog," the hbo documentary he produced about the relationship between special operators and their canines. >> when they love each other as much as they love us. >> we fell in love with these guys and these dogs. we found something that was really fascinating. elite soldiers don't show very much emotion. they're very, very walled off on certain aspects of themselves. but then these animals come in, and you see them kind of reduced to these baby-talking giant men. they're just like, "you're so cute!" what's going on? it's really, really beautiful. >> and action! >> reporter: tatum codirects "dog" with longtime writing and producer partner reid carolyn. who's the brains in this partnership? >> who do you think?

come on. >> that was a completely loaded question. >> come on, you're both pretty faces. so come on. >> come on! i barely graduated high school. >> reporter: together the duo has produced nine films. >> you guys are almost like spouses. >> oh, yeah. >> a bit, yeah. >> you've been producing partners, business partners. >> my life partner. >> life partner. we've been through all the most intense moments of each other's lives. >> how would you describe this man's narrative arc? >> whoo. that's a good question. >> you were in a good position to know. >> yeah, i mean, i think -- i think he's sort of on a hero's journey. >> i love you, buddy. >> it's fun. the nice thing about being friends with somebody as long as we've been friend is is that you get to watch them kind of change and evolve as a person. i think he's getting wiser. and there is a zen to channing tatum. >> magic mike. >> reporter: dreaming up the $300 million "magic mike"

empire, now with live stage shows and a third film directed by steven soderbergh in the works. >> wanted to make it like the super bowl of stripper movies. we're going to really do some dancing on this one, go full-on into the fantasy of what this thing can be. >> reporter: reid carolyn not only rote the "magic mike" franchise, he wrote and codirected their latest venture. >> you don't say it but clearly they're both suffering post-traumatic stress. >> i think we all are, in general, in life. >> it's easy to say, ptsd, it's like this or that. but the more we talk to people, we realized everybody's post-traumatic stress was totally different and solutions to it were different. we wanted to present a version of it that felt authentic to the world of people that we had a connection to. and we never really wanted to label it as ptsd. it sort of creates a stigma, an idea. >> people look at ptsd as a negative thing. so it's a label that people just don't want to have attachment

to. >> you're just a demon, just a demon! >> reporter: yet through lighthearted comedy, they explore some of the darkest issues veterans face. >> you explore homeless veterans? >> it's a reality. you're not trying to, like, spoon-feed the medicine to people. people don't want sad stories right now, they want joyful stories to escape into. >> our thanks to juju. we'll be right back. r vitamins? at nature's bounty, we give you more. more immune support. with the only vitamin c that lasts 24 hours. more restful sleep. with the first-ever triple action sleep supplement. we put more of our brains into helping your heart. we give you more wellness solutions backed by rigorous science than we ever have before. nature's bounty gives you more, so you can live bountifully. [inspirational soul music]

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♪ that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here, same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night. and now most admired alum! get up there. this is so embarrassing. there's no way it's me (friends laughing) you know her....