Olympic gymnast alleges abuse by team doc
Olympic gold-medalist McKayla Maroney revealed Wednesday that she was among the more than 125 women allegedly molested by a former USA Gymnastics doctor — adding her voice to the #MeToo movement that has exploded since allegations of rampant sex harassment by deposed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Maroney, 21, named convicted sex offender Dr. Larry Nassar as her repeat abuser, saying he molested her from the age of 13 until she left the sport last year.
“Dr. Nassar told me that I was receiving ‘medically necessary treatment that he had been performing on patients for over 30 years,’ ” she posted Tuesday on Twitter.
“It seemed whenever and wher- ever this man could find the chance, I was ‘treated.’ It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my Silver.”
Maroney said the worst abuse happened during the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, when she was 15.
“I had flown all day and all night with the team to get to Tokyo,” she wrote. “He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment’. I thought I was going to die that night.”
The former Olympian, who won a team gold at the 2012 Summer Games in London, alluded to Weinstein’s sexual assault scandal.
“People should know it’s not just happening in Hollywood. This is happening everywhere. Wherever there is a position of power, there seems to be potential for abuse,” she said. “I had a dream to go to the Olympics, and the things that I had to endure to get there, were unnecessary, and disgusting.”
The #MeToo movement — which encourages women to identify themselves as victims of sexual harassment or assault — gained momentum after Weinstein’s case exploded.
“Our silence has given the wrong people power for too long, and it’s time to take our power back. And remember, it’s never too late to speak up,” Maroney said.
Nassar spent nearly 30 years as an osteopath with the USA Gymnastics program and is now in prison in Michigan after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
He is expected to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting nine girls, to which he has pleaded not guilty, and is being sued by more than 125 women who claim he sexually assaulted them under the guise of treatment.
USA Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body and Nassar’s former employer, has said it was not aware of the allegations against Nassar until July 2015, at which point he was fired, Time magazine reported.
Maroney’s London gymnastics teammate Aly Raisman also spoke out recently about Nassar, calling him “a monster” while blasting USA Gymnastics for failing to stop him and attempting to sweep his crimes “under the rug.”