USA Gymnastics suspends coach for abuse of young gymnasts

Former U.S. Olympic and national team coach Maggie Haney received an eight-year suspension from U.S.A. Gymnastics on Wednesday for verbal and emotional abuse against her gymnasts.

The decision concluded a two-month long hearing in which Laurie Hernandez, a member of the gold medal-winning 2016 U.S. team at the Rio Games, testified against her longtime coach. World champion artistic gymnast Riley McCusker also wrote a letter criticizing Haney.

Haney, once one of the country's most prominent gymnastics coaches, was found by a U.S.A. Gymnastics hearing panel to have failed to "provide a safe, positive and healthy environment with a culture of trust and empowerment".

She was also found to have "engaged in severe aggressive behavior towards a minor that included teasing and ridiculing that was intended to control and diminish another person", USA Gymnastics added in a statement.