Olympic Doctor Claims He Was Fired for Reporting Sexual Abuse

According to a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit he filed this week, Dr. Bill Moreau was fired by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee for questioning the organization’s handling of reports of abuse. 

Moreau was dismissed in May 2019 as vice president of sports medicine by the USOPC after 10 years of working at the organization. 

Moreau’s lawsuit, which was filed in district court for the city and county of Denver, alleges he was fired by the organization after voicing his disagreement with how top USOPC executives handled reports of sexual abuse and mental health concerns.

Among the claims in Moreau’s lawsuit are allegations that USOPC executives mishandled the statutory rape of a 15-year-old female Paralympic athlete and failed to even acknowledge it had happened, as well as the charge that the organization’s execs ignored Moreau’s pleas to provide psychiatric care to a suicidal Olympic cyclist. The lawsuit claims the athlete committed suicide a day after “Moreau’s plea for urgent action.”

“Frankly, what I’m really worried about is, what if another kid gets raped and I didn’t say something? What if another athlete kills himself and I didn’t say something? Somebody has got to get the USOPC’s attention to start listening and not breaking the law,” Moreau told ESPN.

Moreau, a chiropractor, also alleges he questioned the way disgraced and imprisoned ex-Team USA Dr. Larry Nassar treated athletes at the 2012 London Olympics.

Luella Chavez D’Angelo, the Olympic Committee’s chief marketing and communications officer, addressed the lawsuit in a statement to The Denver Post.

“We regret that Dr. Moreau and his attorney have misrepresented the causes of his separation from the USOPC,” D’Angelo said. “We will honor their decision to see this matter through in the courts, and we won’t comment on the specifics as that goes forward.”

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