Some of his victims have alleged that he would rat on them to coaches — for example, telling them if the gymnast stole food at night, or if they “weren’t as injured” as they said they were (keeping in mind he was lying)
Nassar was essentially acting as a prison guard for the gymnasts, reporting on their activities to higher-ups and given access to them in return.
In general, adults don’t believe children, and do believe other adults. So if an adult — a medical professional at that — tells another adult, “oh she just doesn’t understand the treatment” or “she can go, her injury is fine,” they’ll believe them. And not the kid.
This is an extraordinarily difficult watch, but I recommend watching Aly Raisman’s victims impact statement to understand just what Nassar did.
When your abuser is a trusted adult — moreover, a trusted adult who is looked to as an authority by other adults — your conclusion is that you must be wrong, your pain and confusion must be wrong. And USAG and MSU and Twistars and a bunch of other organizations took advantage.
Took advantage of that, it should be clear, for money. Medals bring sponsorships. Gyms that produce Olympians bring in new athletes with parents who will pay top dollar. College programs that can bring in high level athletes garner attention and viewership and more money.
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Not enough has been done. Athletes don’t have enough representation within USAG, and the processes that protected Nassar — and other abuse coaches — are still present.
According to the book "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes," Fong pushed Gomez to perform that vault, and argued after her death that it was imperative to teach the Yurchenko to younger gymnasts in order to beat the Russians. chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-19…
Gymternet correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that first transition (high to low) is a Bhardwaj, named for the great Mohini Bhardwaj who competed at the elite level, then went to UCLA, then came back to elite (which is rare!)
Okay quick explainer! "Elite" gymnastics is a specific category as defined by a few things (here's a chart) usagym.org/PDFs/Women/Eli…