Gymnast Raisman sues USOC over Nassar abuse
Two-time gold medal winner says authorities ‘should have known’ about Nassar’s abuse
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman filed a civil lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court this week, alleging negligence by the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics for failing to make sure appropriate protocols were followed in regards to monitoring former national team doctor Larry Nassar.
Raisman filed the suit against both organizations in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Wednesday, claiming they “knew or should have known” about Nassar’s abusive patterns.
The suit was filed in Santa Clara County, “Because Nassar abused her at a competition there,” said Sean Simko of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, the firm that filed the 51-page complaint. The event would have been the 2012 Olympic gymnastics trials in San Jose. Raisman said the abuse continued at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Nassar, who is also named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, is serving decades in prison for molesting some of the sport’s top athletes and others as well as child pornography crimes. Raisman joins a list of more than 100 civil actions filed against Nassar and USA Gymnastics. McKayla Maroney, an Olympic teammate of Raisman’s in 2012, named the USOC as a codefendant in a lawsuit she filed in December. USA Gymnastics and the USOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Raisman, 23, was captain for the goldmedal winning 2012 and 2016 U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics teams. She says she was abused by Nassar in multiple locations beginning in 2010, including at the U.S. national team training facility at the Karolyi Ranch training center in Texas.
Raisman said she initially felt she was receiving medically necessary treatment by Nassar before realizing it was abuse. She battled shame, guilt and depression in the aftermath, Raisman said. Nassar spent nearly three decades at USA Gymnastics before being fired in 2015 after complaints about his behavior. He continued to work at Michigan State University through the fall of 2016 before being hit with federal charges.
Raisman said the USOC and USA Gymnastics allowed Nassar to continue abusing athletes by not telling the university about the conduct that led them to firing him. USA Gymnastics and the USOC broke their stated mandates to protect children in their programs by not revealing Nassar’s past misconduct to athletes and their parents or guardians, the lawsuit said.