Nike, NSAF Face Lawsuit After 16-Year-Old Athlete Allegedly Assaulted During Elite Track Programme

Nike and the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation are being sued in a US federal court by the family of a 16-year-old athlete who alleges she was sexually assaulted during an elite track programme in Beaverton, Oregon.

The complaint says the alleged attack happened on 5 July at a hotel housing athletes attending the overnight programme near Nike's headquarters. It alleges another teenage participant choked and raped her after she rejected his advances.

The lawsuit also accuses Nike and NSAF of failing to provide adequate supervision and mishandling the teenager's report afterwards.

The teenager, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, attended the multi-day programme with her parents. Athletes were staying at a hotel near Nike's headquarters, while family members were accommodated on a separate floor.

Nike has declined to comment on the pending litigation, while NSAF disputes the complaint's account.

Nike, NSAF Lawsuit Details Alleged Hotel Assault

According to the complaint, a group of athletes had been spending time together in one of the hotel rooms before most of them left. Jane Doe and another participant were allegedly left alone.

The lawsuit says the other teenager made several advances, which Jane Doe rejected, before allegedly choking and raping her. It also alleges that Nike and NSAF staff later saw blood in the room.

George Goldberg, the lawyer representing Jane Doe, told NewsNation on Sunday that his client had joined the programme hoping to build on what he described as an already promising academic and athletic career.

'She thought she was around people that she could trust,' Goldberg said. 'As it turned out, he turned out to be a monster, and he attacked her.'

The other participant is not named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. The available reporting does not establish whether he has retained legal representation.

Nike, NSAF Lawsuit Raises Supervision Allegations

The complaint also challenges the level of adult supervision provided to teenagers staying at the hotel. It alleges there were too few chaperones and claims those present failed to patrol hallways or check on attendees. Goldberg said teenagers were effectively left to manage their own rooms without adults nearby.

'You had the kids running their own rooms,' he said. 'There was no adult close by; there was no monitoring.'

The lawsuit further alleges that Nike and NSAF knew the participant accused of the assault had previous 'behavioral issues' before the event. The complaint provides little detail about those alleged issues or how the organisations were said to have known about them.

The family's lawsuit alleges that failures in supervision contributed to the circumstances surrounding the alleged assault. Those claims have not been established in court.

Nike, NSAF Lawsuit Focuses on Staff Response

The complaint also contains detailed allegations about what happened after Jane Doe left the hotel room. It says Nike and NSAF staff found her crying in a hallway before moving her into a staff member's hotel room. The lawsuit alleges she was kept from her parents for up to 30 minutes while she was questioned and required to provide a written statement.

'She was then urged to say that the attack was consensual and was required to make a written statement,' the complaint states. The lawsuit says her parents were later denied access to the statement and were not initially told what had allegedly happened.

Once their daughter told them about the alleged assault, the complaint claims staff implied the encounter had been consensual and 'aggressively requested that the family not contact law enforcement'.

Goldberg said Nike and NSAF should have contacted police after becoming aware of the allegation rather than conducting their own inquiry.

'They basically tried to make this go away,' he said. 'I think had Nike handled this the right way in the beginning, I think we would talk about something completely different.'

NSAF chief executive Josh Roe said the organisation regarded the allegations as serious but rejected the version of events presented in the complaint. 'We do not agree with the account of events set out in the complaint, and we will respond to it fully through the legal process,' Roe said.

Nike, NSAF Case Remains Contested

According to the complaint, Jane Doe later contacted the Beaverton Police Department and reported the alleged assault. The lawsuit also says the other participant was expelled from the programme and sent home.

The complaint states that criminal charges are pending against the participant. However, the Beaverton Police Department did not confirm whether a rape complaint had been filed.

The civil case was filed in US District Court in Portland. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and asks that Nike and NSAF pay the teenager's legal and medical costs.

The allegations against Nike and NSAF remain contested and have not been established in court. Nike has said it will not comment on pending litigation, while NSAF has said it will respond to the allegations through the legal process.

The lawsuit places the organisations' supervision of teenage athletes and their alleged response to Jane Doe's report at the centre of the dispute. Those claims, together with the defendants' responses, will be examined as the civil case proceeds.