Gold medallist Maroney accuses the USA team doctor of systematic sexual abuse
The 2012 Olympic gold medallist Mckayla Maroney has accused the former doctor for USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar, of repeatedly molesting her during her teenage years.
In a social-media post prompted by the Hollywood sexual-harassment scandal, Maroney wrote, “This is happening everywhere … I had a dream to go to the Olympics, and the things I had to endure were unnecessary, and disgusting.”
According to Maroney, her abuse at the hands of Nassar – who is now a convicted sex offender – began with an early junior camp in 2009 and continued for at least three years. “It seemed wherever and whenever this man could find the chance, I was ‘treated’,” she wrote.
“It happened in London before my team [competition] … and it happened before I won my silver. For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old. I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo. He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I knew, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment’. I thought I was going to die that night.”
Nassar spent almost 30 years working with USA Gymnastics, until the Indianapolis Star revealed last year that he was being accused of sexual abuse by two prominent gymnasts. In July, he pleaded guilty to three child pornography charges. Further sexual misconduct charges are pending, while more than 125 women and girls have filed lawsuits against him on the grounds that he sexually abused them.
Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, resigned in March after it became clear that the testimonies of numerous whistle-blowers had been mishandled.
Report: News, P11