ESPYs put best, worst of sports on display
Last week’s ESPYs ceremony showcased some of the best — and worst — the sports world has to offer.
Among the best: honoring the three Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School coaches — Scott Beigel, Aaron Feis and Chris Hixon — who sacrificed their lives to shield their students during the Valentine’s Day mass shooting.
Undoubtedly the worst: reminding us all that Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee allowed — and perhaps even enabled — orthopedic physician Dr. Larry Nassar to sexually abuse hundreds of female athletes (many of whom were preteens) over the course of nearly three decades.
And while more than 140 of Nassar’s “sister-survivors” took to the Microsoft Theater stage in Los Angeles on Wednesday night to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on behalf of all those who were victimized and came forward, no amount of accolades or lawsuit settlement money will undo the psychic and emotional damage wrought by this serial predator.
That’s why the most vocal — and recognizable — of Nassar’s victims, Olympic gold-medalwinning gymnast Aly Raisman has said she’ll dedicate the rest of her life to ensuring that all child athletes are better protected from potential predators.
Raisman’s public crusade started in January when she — along with 150-plus other victims — confronted Nassar in a
Lansing, Michigan, courtroom during his sentencing hearing for multiple sex crimes (the 54-yearold Nassar will be imprisoned anywhere from 40 to 175 years).
Although originally she didn’t plan to read a victim’s impact statement in open court, she made a last-second decision to do so.
As she told ESPN just prior to the ESPYs, “There were a lot of gymnasts who had spoken up before the sentencing, but everyone kind of didn’t get it. I feel like the media didn’t really get it either.”
In her testimony — the video of which has since gone viral — Raisman projected a combination of poise, rage and utter contempt that resonated with sexual abuse victims everywhere: “Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force — and you are nothing.”
But what has fueled Raisman to become a public advocate and nationwide speaker is her outrage over how many people in positions of power often know, or suspect, they have a child predator in their midst — and choose to do nothing.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that this is so much bigger than Larry Nassar,” she told ESPN. “He thrived for decades. If someone thrives for decades, there are people who knew about it and did nothing. There were so many people who let us down.”
But lest one think that only female and/ or underage athletes are vulnerable to predators in positions of authority, think again.
Ohio State University is embroiled in an ongoing scandal in which last week five former wrestlers filed suit, alleging sexual abuse by former team physician
Dr. Richard Strauss during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
At that time, current U.S. Congressman and former OSU wrestler Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was an assistant wrestling coach.
Eight former OSU wrestlers have publicly stated that Jordan was aware of the ongoing abuse but took no action.
Jordan has denied the wrestlers’ accounts.
Over the weekend, media reports stated that more than 100 former OSU athletes have come forward, alleging abuse at the hands of Strauss, who committed suicide in 2005.
That it took nearly three decades for the
MSU and OSU scandals to come to light is why, in March, Raisman launched the #FlipTheSwitch campaign which “calls for all adults involved in youth sports to complete Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children training, the leading child sexual abuse prevention program in the country.”
The training is free when one uses the code “FlipTheSwitch” and everyone who completes the course receives a certificate signed by Raisman.
As Raisman told Sports Illustrated when she launched the initiative: “To address this terrible problem, we all need to be willing to confront it head-on. Sexual abuse is something that needs to be discussed openly … and all adults should become educated as to how to prevent it. Athlete safety must be the highest priority.”