Gymnasts Speak Out About the FBI's Mishandling of the Larry Nassar Case

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, four elite American gymnasts testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the abuse they suffered by USA Gymnastics (USAG) former doctor and physical therapist Larry Nassar. Nassar worked as the USA gymnastics team doctor as well as at Michigan State University in the sports medicine clinic. He was convicted in 2017 on child pornography charges as well as sexual abuse that occurred for decaces. During the sentencing for his first sexual assault trial, 156 women bravely spoke about the abuse they endured from someone who they thought was there to treat them. He was sentenced in January 2018 to as many as 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal misconduct.

The Senate Committee hearing’s main focus was about the inadequate investigation that occured when the abuse was first reported. Maggie Nichols was the first to report the abuse to USA Gymnastics in Summer of 2015, when she was just 17. Although USA Gymnastics hired a private investigator, it took them three weeks before they even interviewed Nichols -and then another five weeks and complaints from two more victims that they called the FBI. The FBI’s failure to interview relevant parties in a timely manner occurred with more than just Nichols, despite repeated requests by several athletes to be interviewed. 

Multiple institutions in charge of keeping athletes safe, including the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), the National Governing Body (NGB) designated by USOC to manage the gymnasts, and the USAG itself, all failed to respond to credible allegations. Mckayla Maroney pointed out this failure during the hearing, “Why are public servants, whose job is to protect, getting away with this? This is not justice... Today, I ask you all to hear my voice.” She continues by telling the committee to do everything in their power to guarantee the people responsible are accountable. These organizations failed to do their job in protecting the athletes and, because of this, many more athletes had to suffer. 

In response to a question about protecting child athletes, Aly Raisman stated that it is important to look at the connection between the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic committee and that these organizations should be thoroughly  investigated.“If we’re thinking about children going into gymnastics, I don’t want to be guessing if they’re going to be okay. I want to know with 100% certainty that somebody that looked the other way for us, isn’t still in a position of power,” she asserted. 

During the investigation into the allegations, Michigan State University looked back at a former accusation made in 2000 that the university did not properly investigate. In 2000, Rachel Denhollander reported that she was molested by Nassar. MSU interviewed Nassar, but concluded that his actions were not sexual in nature. The Denhollander complaint was not the first or last time that MSU investigated Nassar. The insufficient job of investigating MSU allowed Nassar to be able to continue his destructive and criminal actions for many years under the cover of protection of respected organizations. 

On September 20, 2021, Aly Raisman appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to talk about her documentary special “Darkness to Light” that focuses on her and other survivors of abuse. She speaks more about the organizations and how she did not fully process the abuse, but now “ can't sit back and watch these organizations do nothing.” She was dealing with the abuse personally and privately, but also had to address the matters publicly. She pointed out that the way “a survivor is healed is linked to the way their abuse is handled.” She went on to say that The organizations minimized the victims’ trauma and because of this, it affected the way they looked at the situation themselves. The abuse victims had even greater problems healing due to the malpractice of the government. She explains that although part of getting justice was accountability for the wrong-doers and those who failed to do their jobs in the actual gymnasiums, there also needs to have an independent investigation into the FBI, USAG,  and the USOC to assess their involvement in this case and other similar cases. 

By Caroline Cranman