The Dark Side of Competitive Gymnastics

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  Over the last week, the Larry Nassar scandal has unfolded in front of America, and it is disturbing to say the least.  If you don’t know, the team doctor for the US Gymnastics training camp and Olympic team, has been jailed for up to 175 years for sexually abusing more than 150 young women – some, at the time, as young as 6 years old.  The numbers are actually speculated to be in the 1000s, for Nassar was the go-to “doctor” in women’s gymnastics for the last 20 years.  Except, he is not a doctor. He is a child molester.
    All of this started to come out with one email sent from a victim to the Indianapolis Star. The paper was already investigating abuse in the sport, but their tipping point was this unsolicited source. The email read,
“I recently read the article titled ‘Out of Balance’ published by the IndyStar. My experience may not be relevant to your investigation, but I am emailing to report an incident that may be. I was not molested by my coach, but I was molested by Dr Larry Nassar, the team doctor for USAG. I was 15 years old, and it was under the guise of medical treatment for my back”.
   Woman after woman started to come forward with similar stories, and through the 156 testimonies against him, we’ve learned just how horrific all of their experience’s were and how much of a monster Larry Nassar is. *Nassar does not deserve the title of “man”, for he lacks human qualities. He is a despicable waste of space.*
   Almost routinely, Nassar told his “patents” he molested the same thing he told Olympic gymnast Mckayla Maroney; what he was doing was “medically necessary treatment” that he had been doing for over 30 years. (time.com).  The countless stories of these events are disgusting and almost unbelievable:
Nassar had some girls in pain before competitions due to his abuse.
There is an account of him drugging a girl, fast forward to her waking up in his hotel room.
He gave some of these so-called “treatments” in his own home.
Nassar’s abuse even led a woman to take her own life; her mother heartbreakingly had to speak for her in court.
How could any of this have occurred for so long without anyone finding out the sick truth? It didn’t. People, trusted adults whose job involves protecting these girls, knew and swept it under the rug. These trusted associations did nothing to help the situation, they only prolonged it.
They are the United States Olympic Committee, Michigan State University and the USA Gymnastics Committee – and they are to blame.
Speaking of Maroney, she (and speculated many other women) was paid $1.25 million by USA Gymnastics to not speak out about the abuse.
Michigan State University had been receiving complaints about Nassar since the 90s. Michigan News Service unbelievably defended his behavior, saying that “intravaginal manipulations are indeed an approved, if rare, osteopathic treatment for pelvic pain”. 
The USOC refused to even conduct an investigation after early allegations. Olympian Aly Raisman revealed something even the judge was not aware of; that after USA Gymnastics terminated their lease at the camp Nassar committed a number of his crimes at, athletes were still training there. (FoxNews.com).
I think this quote from survivor, Rachael Denhollander, sums up the general feeling of the girls; “I was confident that because people at MSU [Michigan State University] and USAG had to be aware of what Larry was doing and had not stopped him, there could surely be no question about the legitimacy of his treatment. This must be medical treatment. The problem must be me … I was wrong.”.
These institutions are put in place to protect, and they did just the opposite. Young athletes, women, parents and the general public trusted that they were doing their jobs, but the truth is far from it.
These committees you are as much to blame as Nassar is – he could have never done this for so long without them.

I am disgusted as I’m sure everyone else is, but I hope this results in change, because no one, and especially no child, should have to say “Me Too”.