U.S. gymnasts say sport rife with abuse

They were little girls with dreams of Olympic gold. Now they’re women with lifelong injuries, suffocating anxiety and debilitating eating disorders. They are the other victims of USA Gymnastics.

Thirteen former U.S. gymnasts and three coaches interviewed by The Associated Press described a win-at-allcost culture rife with verbal and emotional abuse in which girls were forced to train on broken bones and other injuries. That culture was tacitly endorsed by the sport’s governing body and institutionalized by Bela and Martha Karolyi, the husband-andwife duo who coached America’s top female gymnasts for three decades.

The gymnasts agreed to speak to the AP after recent courtroom revelations about USA Gymnastics’ former team doctor, Larry Nassar, who recently was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting young athletes under the guise of medical treatment. The Karolyis created an environment in which Nassar was able to thrive, according to witness statements in Nassar’s criminal case and a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics, the Karolyis and others. Girls were afraid to challenge authority, Nassar was able to prey on vulnerable girls, andhe didn’t challenge the couple’s harsh training methods. “He was their little puppet,” Jeanette Antolin, a former member of the national team who trained with the Karolyis, said. “They got what they wanted. He got what he wanted.”

Young girls were virtually starved, constantly body shamed and forced to train with injuries, according to interviews and the lawsuit.

USA Gymnastics declined to answer questions, and the Karolyis didn’t reply to requests for comment. Their attorney, Gary Jewell, said the Karolyis didn’t abuse anyone. The Karolyis, who helped USA Gymnastics win 41 Olympic medals over three decades, trained hundreds of gymnasts at their complex in Huntsville, Texas, and selected gymnasts for the national team. A congressional committee investigating the gymnastics scandal said in Feb. 8 letters to the Karolyis, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee that they were all “at the center of many of these failures” that allowed Nassar’s sexual abuse to persist.