Maroney alleges sexual abuse by USA team doctor
McKayla Maroney, an Olympic gold-medal-winning American gymnast, said she was sexually abused by the same team doctor who is already facing criminal charges for allegedly molesting other gymnasts.
Maroney, 21, posted on Twitter early Wednesday morning that the doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar, began molesting her at age 13.
Nassar molested team members under the guise of treating them for medical conditions, Maroney said, matching other teammates’ stories.
“It seemed whenever and wherever this man could find the chance, I was ‘treated,’ ” she said. “It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, 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 know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night.”
Nassar is in jail, facing 22 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving at least seven victims. “This guy is a monster,” Bill Schuette, the attorney general of Michigan, said in February.
Jamie Dantzscher, a 2000 Olympian, is among the gymnasts who has accused Nassar. Although the charges relate to seven gymnasts, lawyers say dozens of others have come forward, and many have joined a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics.
Nassar has denied accusations against him in the past. A lawyer who has represented him, Matt Newburg, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Maroney’s accusation comes a day after another gold medalist, Tatiana Gutsu of Ukraine, accused a star gymnast of raping her when she was 15. Gutsu won the all-around title at the 1992 Barcelona Games as part of the Unified Team of former Soviet athletes.
Maroney said she chose to speak out publicly because of the “Me Too” movement in which women post the phrase on social media to show that they, too, have been victims of sexual assault or harassment.
Maroney was part of the 2012 American gymnastics team that won a team gold medal. She also won an individual silver on her specialty, the vault.
She drew extra attention that year for a look of disappointment she displayed on the medal stand after winning her silver.
The picture became an internet meme, often labeled, “McKayla is not impressed.”