How could it happen for so long? Why didn’t anyone stop him? Where were the parents? Where were the coaches and other figures of authority? Where was anyone who could have stopped the nightmare?
So many people are asking those questions as the shocking details of the sexual abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar are told. More than 150 victims delivered accounts during his hearing of how the former USA Gymnastics doctor sexually abused and assaulted them under the guise he was treating them.
Already sentenced to 60 years in prison for federal child pornography charges, Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct.
The case is shocking not only to those following it, but also to the ones involved in the sport. Members of the University of Utah’s nationally ranked gymnastics team have been following the developments along with the general public and say they are horrified.
Certainly they’ve heard stories of how hard the training and the lifestyle can be at the Karolyi Ranch, the training center founded by Bela and Marta Karolyi that served as the Olympic training facility from 2001 to just this week, when USA Gymnastics cut ties with the facility.
It’s also where Nassar, who was the team doctor for four Olympic Games, abused many of his victims.
For many years former athletes have come out and spoken against the Karolyi training system that allegedly included verbal and psychological abuse. But the revelations of Nassar’s molestation are something horrifyingly new.
“For anyone involved in the sport, it’s hard to watch other people go through something so traumatic, and you wonder why this has taken so long to come out,” Utah senior Maddy Stover said. “I’ve been involved in this sport since I was little and you spend hours on end working on that passion. You don’t realize what is going on outside of your own four walls.”
Utah sophomore MyKayla Skinner and junior Shannon McNatt each spent training stints at the ranch. Both declined to be interviewed for this story, saying they have nothing to add about the revelations, according to a U. representative.
Ute sophomore Missy Reinstadtler, who was there briefly, said she didn’t have any firsthand experience to share, but added, “I am proud of the gymnasts who have come forward to put an end to this kind of abuse.”
Other gymnasts were willing to share their thoughts and expressed both dismay for their fellow competitors and sadness for the sport.
“It’s surreal that it is happening,” junior Kari Lee said. “Every single girl who has come out, we give them all our support because it isn’t easy to come out and talk about something that was done to you.”
Added junior MaKenna Merrell-Giles: “It’s sad and heartbreaking. It’s disgusting when something like this happens in a sport where so many little girls are involved.”
Utah coach Megan Marsden said she and the rest of the gymnastics staff long have tried to be proactive in protecting their athletes, and themselves, from questionable situations by having a female trainer work with the team, keeping doors open during meetings and always having more than one coach in the room when meeting with their athletes.
She and co-coach Tom Farden also held a recent meeting with the team, telling the gymnasts that if they wanted to speak up about anything that happened or their feelings about the case, they had the support of the coaches.
“Watching all of this going on,” Marsden said, “I feel fortunate that we are in an athletic department where things want to be handled the right way, from the top down.”
Marsden is well aware some might read her comments on the situation and question them.
She was just a sophomore when she started dating her husband, Greg, who was Utah’s gymnastics coach at the time. However, she points out that was a different time and under different circumstances. She noted she was an adult at the time, one who could make her own decisions, And Greg asked her parents for approval first before they started dating. The school athletics director and the rest of the team were made aware of the relationship. A sports psychologist was made available to the team.
The Marsdens have been married since 1983. Still, as honorable as Greg tried to make the courtship, Megan knows their relationship would not be allowed in today’s climate. While the relationship was consensual, Greg still had the power as a coach, and that kind of dynamic is what is being brought into question now.
“Back then, it was viewed as a public romance rather than a scandal,” she said, “but it wouldn’t be allowed to happen today. It just wouldn’t happen.”
The levels and depth of abuse by Nassar are almost unfathomable, even as the details have emerged.
The revelations have led to USA Gymnastics’ decision to cut ties with the Karolyi Ranch, where much of the abuse took place, the resignations of several board members of USA Gymnastics and the suspension of John Geddert, the coach of the 2012 Olympic team who employed Nassar at two of his gyms. He is now under investigation by USA Gymnastics.
USA Gymnastics was also named in a lawsuit by Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, who says she was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of a financial settlement worth $1.25 million. According to Maroney, she needed the money to pay for psychological treatment. Her lawsuit accuses USA Gymnastics of conspiring to keep Nassar’s abuse under wraps. Maroney broke the agreement in October, when she revealed that she, too, was abused by Nassar.
Finally, Michigan State President Lou Anna K. Simon resigned Wednesday night after she came under scrutiny and withering criticism for failing to thoroughly investigate allegations against Nassar while he was employed by the university from 1997 to 2016.
While the accounts are alarming and mind-boggling, there is a feeling no one should be surprised if more is revealed.
“I am amazed that with so many victims, somewhere along the line it didn’t get through what was going on,” Marsden said. “That shows how incredibly powerful that man was and how good he was at grooming and manipulating. To prey on these young women, he used his power at the very highest level. He could determine Olympic teams based on the health of the athletes. Parents and coaches knew they had to have his OK and he made it difficult for those kids. It is just sick. It is a really sad situation.”
So how to prevent such a tragedy from happening again? At the collegiate level, Marsden believes the standards and protections her program has in place are sufficient.
At the lower levels of the sport, where the athletes are much younger, more easily controlled and face, at times, even greater pressure to win, more changes need to be made, said observers.
“I hope all this speaking out and acknowledgment will lead to a bigger movement, not just in gymnastics,” Stover said. “People need to be aggressively speaking up and looking at the structure of things so this doesn’t happen in USA Gymnastics again. Hopefully, it can grow and develop from this time.”
Lee linked the case to the #MeToo movement and hopes younger gymnasts will be taught what is and isn’t allowed by those in power.
“When you are young and you are working with highly regarded professionals and coaches, you automatically put your trust in that person,” she said. “Those girls might have felt uncomfortable about some of the things that were done, but they didn’t know what was going on until more and more and more started describing what was happening and then it was a ‘me too’ thing. There are a lot of people you can trust in the medical field. This was sad.”
Nicole Detling, a sports psychologist who works with the Utes, hopesthere will be more protection of athletes in the future because they arein a vulnerable position, often wanting to please those they view inpower.
“Hopefully there will be more attention paid and athletes can stand upsooner and recognize sooner if something like this is happening,” shesaid. “I love the empowerment these girls are having, coming out rightnow and it will help their healing process but hopefully it will helpboys and girls everywhere. We need to start paying attention.”
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