Larry Nassar was a former Olympic gymnastics doctor from Michigan State University. He joined the USA Gymnastics national medical staff in 1986 as an athletic trainer. He helped injured gymnasts get back to full strength while they were training for the best experiences of their lives, competing in the Olympics. Nassar was supposed to strictly treat gymnasts with their injuries but recent allegations have come out saying he did otherwise.
On December 7, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison for sexually assaulting more than 140 victims, child pornography charges and as a threat to children. He was also sentenced for three counts of child pornography resulting in 20 years per count. He had more than 37,000 illegal pornographic photos on a hard drive which was found in a nearby trash bin in 2016. There were also videos of him assaulting children in a pool. According to brave gymnasts that spoke out, the earliest allegations began in 1994. He is also waiting for 10 state counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct to be decided which he has already pled guilty to.
Nassar claimed that the “abuse” and the inappropriate touching was part of the medical treatment of the victims. He admitted to digitally penetrating these young girls for his own pleasure. Some of his victims were younger than 13 years old. He also admitted in the courtroom that this was not part of any medical procedure. “He abused my trust, abused my body and left scars on my psyche that may never heal,” Olympic gymnast Mckayla Maroney told the court in her letter. “Larry Nassar deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.”
“Mr. Nassar was, is and, in my view, will continue to be a danger to children. He has demonstrated that he should never again have access to children,” Judge Janet T. Neff said before the sentence was determined. With all of the allegations against him, most people can agree that he should not be allowed to continue his career with the medical treatment of children.
USA Gymnastics is asking those who put civil suits against him (more than 90 victims) to drop all of their charges. USAG is saying that they are not liable for any of the actions of Nassar and that they should not be given any of the blame because it mostly happened at the MSU gym and therefore he was acting outside of USAG. USAG is also saying that since the former gymnasts did not come out right away that their claims are untimely. USAG is trying to avoid all of this by saying that they had nothing to do with it and that they are not responsible for Nassar’s actions.
Some of the most famous gymnasts who claimed to be abused by Nassar are Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman and Mckayla Maroney. They are sharing all of this on social media and adding to the growing #MeToo movement by speaking out and encouraging all victims of sexual abuse not to stay quiet, and that their voices matter.
Raisman shared her story with the world on 60 Minutes and said, “We must look at the organizations that protected Nassar for years. Until we understand the flaws in their systems, we can’t be sure something like this won’t happen again.”
