HARDLY A HAPPY RETURN
Gymnastics coming back to Hub amid scandal
The state’s Olympic heroes were noticeably quiet yesterday when USA Gymnastics announced the championships are returning to Boston this summer.
Needham’s Aly Raisman and Winchester’s Alicia Sacramone Quinn had nothing to say.
The event announcement lands amid a period of turmoil for USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, as it deals with the fallout of sexual assault allegations against former team doctor Larry Nassar.
Still, USA Gymnastics announced yesterday the national championships will be held Aug. 16-18 at the TD Garden.
It’s the first time Boston will host the men’s and women’s title competitions.
Unlike previous championship announcements, however, this one took place online with brief paragraphs and no quotes from any current or past gymnasts.
The TD Garden’s website was silent on the matter as well, with the event still not even listed on its online calendar.
Meanwhile, Nassar’s sordid story continued to make headlines overshadowing the not-so-big announcement.
“STOP VICTIM SHAMING,” Raisman tweeted yesterday as another alleged victim of the ousted team doctor stepped forward.
“If you did not believe that I & others were abused than why pressure & manipulate us? WE WERE MOLESTED BY A MONSTER U ENABLED 2 THRIVE FOR DECADES. You are 100% responsible. It was mandatory to get ‘treatment’ by Nassar,” she added.
This week Maggie Nichols — a former Olympic hopeful — said in a statement Nassar molested her at the Karolyi Ranch Olympic training camp in Texas. She wrote: “He violated our innocence.”
The University of Oklahoma gymnast is represented by attorney John Manly.
Manly represents 107 females suing two institutions that employed Nassar: USA Gymnastics, the Indianapolis-based group that trains Olympians; and Michigan State University.
Nassar has admitted sexually assaulting the gymnasts, possessing child pornography and molesting girls who sought medical treatment. He is scheduled for sentencing next week on the molestation cases. He was sentenced in December to 60 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.
In November, Raisman opened up with her own claims of abuse against
Nassar.
Olympic gold medalists Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney also have stepped forward as victims of Nassar.
USA Gymnastics has made public efforts to regain credibility, with an organization-wide athlete safety initiative and the hiring of a new CEO.
Gymnasts “are still trying to do the best that they can, despite the turn the sport has taken,” said Lauren Hopkins, a Dartmouth native who runs the popular gymnastics website The Gymternet.
Hopkins said the audiences of young gymnasts still continue to show up.
But that could change in Boston.
“It is going to create some tension,” said Hopkins of the Nassar scandal. “There are going to be a lot of people who don’t want to give money to the organization, who might want to boycott.”