US women's gymnastics...
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Anonymous
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I'm incredibly surprised I haven't seen a thread here or under the sports forum about this HUGE abuse scandal (or I missed it).
Over 150 girls from 6-18 abused by the Dr at Michigan State employed by the US Gymnastics Federatoin/Olympic dr as well. I just watched ESPN's special on it while at the gym since the sentencing hearing, witness statement's were taking place. It's horrifying. Aly Raisman was interviewed about it and she was beyond pissed at the blind eye everyone took. They had a softball player at Michigan State and another Michigan State gymnast interviewed that the big fat woman Athletics director at Michigan State told them to be quiet, that they were causing trouble, liars. There were several suicides from the fallout. One father whose daughter was a very young patient and treated at Dr. Nassar's house told her parents that he molested her and the father did not believe her. When it came out years later, that she really was abused--the father killed himself. Other victims committed suicide from the psychological fall out of the abuse. The amount of adults that knew and were told this was happening and did nothing---as far back as 1990s---it's sickening. It mirrors Penn State. |
Anonymous
| Four members of the 2012 "Fierce Five" team —Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas all have come out that they were victims of the abuse. US Gymnastics knew about it and did nothing. |
Anonymous
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It is horrific. I don’t understand how he was allowed unfettered access to these girls for so long. And WHY did so many people ignore all the rumors?
With the gymnasts, many are young girls when they are sent off to training. Usually without their parents. Why wasn’t there a gauradian in every single medical appointment these girls had? |
Anonymous
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There’s one here from September - I didn’t see it then and only heard about it much more recently. This is HORRIFYING.
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/583863.page |
Anonymous
Which makes no sense! Penn State did nothing because they didn’t want to taint Paterno’s and the schools legacy. But a peripheral member of the USA gymnast association would not prevent girls from continuing to participate. |
Anonymous
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McKayla Maroney signed a NDA as part of her settlement and will not be able to testify, or she would face a $100,000 fine. Chrissy Teigen and Kristen Bell have offered to help pay the fine.
[url]http://people.com/sports/chrissy-teigen-offers-to-pay-mckayla-maroneys-possible-100000-fine-for-discussing-abuse-in-court/[url] |
Anonymous
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What I find interesting about this is that when it was about boys and Penn State the sheer brilliance of the reporting won a Pulitzer. But girls and gymnastics...doesn't seem like anyone is really fighting for them except the girls themselves.
Beautiful quote - “Perhaps you have figured it out by now, but little girls don’t stay little forever,” she said. “They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/larry-nassar-sentencing-victims-testify-impact-abuse.html |
Anonymous
What do you mean why? Those parents threw their kids to the wolves in order to make them famous. Just like the parents of child stars and beauty pageant contestants and musicians. They weren't there to supervise kids that were training 5-6 hours a day and have going to competitions out of state and the country. Probably because to pay for those lessons and competitions they were working overtime. And a guardian at every medical appointment would need to be paid for by somebody. You ignore the rumors until they can't be ignored, or risk loosing your child's 'chance' at stardom. |
Anonymous
Yeah, I saw that. She also took $1.25 million for her silence. She's not offering to give the money back, so... |
Anonymous
Interesting. This article says that the agreement is illegal in CA: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/20/us/mckayla-maroney-lawsuit/index.html If it’s illegal, how could the 100k be enforced? I’m surprised Gloria Alred agreed to it. I tend to believe the article that Gloria requested the confidentiality provison since Gloria loves press conferences. |
Anonymous
Not disputing the horror of all this, but, for the record, Biles was a 2016 Olympian, not 2012. Raisman and Douglas were on both teams. |
Anonymous
| I don't understand why there wasn't a nurse or other medical practitioner in the appointments with the girls? Isn't that normal? It always was for me at my OB or anywhere I've had a male doctor (or something other than a strep test type thing). |
Anonymous
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I’m a huge gymnastics fan and have been following the sport for years. The online gymnastics community (aka the Gymternet) is so horrified and disgusted with how USAG handled this. They have not even moved the monthly camps for the women’s national team from the Ranch (the site in Texas where a lot of abuse occurred). I’m so glad this story is finally getting some attention in the media because it is horrific and for some reason people in the general public don’t seem to know much about it (as compared to the Penn State crimes for example)
This week victim impact statements are going to be read in court so I’m sending all of my best wishes to the survivors and their families. |
Anonymous
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I'm also a huge fan who's been following college and elite gymnastics for at least a decade. The whole community is horrified and is calling for massive institutional changes, as it does not appear that the structure in place can effectively protect athletes, even if changes in personnel were to be made (and even this hasn't really happened).
I am glad that they are allowing all victims, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they have taken legal action, to make a statement this week. I watched a lot of the livestream today and while the stories are horrifying, I was incredibly impressed with the victims' composure. Some of the statements were particularly well constructed and impactful, and it was amazing to see every speaker own their words and story despite the pain it caused them. At this point I am just hopeful that something like this will never, ever happen again. |
Anonymous
Sometimes there was, or even a parent present, or he'd ask them to leave the room. I saw some of the victim statements. The doctor convinced people it was all part of his 'treatment' to sexually abuse the girls. Like he would touch them inappropriately but say that it was for their benefit. O |