The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee has deservedly faced withering criticism for its failure to act on knowledge that former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar had sexually abused hundreds of athletes under his care.

While that criticism has largely been directed at the USOPC’s former top leadership, the current regime also should not escape condemnation for its amoral legal posturing to avoid liability as part of a shameful settlement proposal with the Nassar survivors.

The overall picture is that of an organization thrilled by a California appellate court ruling last October that the USOPC did not have a legal responsibility to protect athletes rather than that of an organization that should live by a moral responsibility to do exactly that.

Now the USOPC has an opportunity to do something that won’t cleanse the horrible ethical stain of its actions and inactions in the Nassar situation but will show it actually cares about athletes.

The USOPC must publicly tell the International Olympic Committee that it has failed both athletes and the world at large by continuing to take a full-steam-ahead approach to the 2020 Summer Olympics in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic.