The American sports world has always been bearing the halo of "freedom" and "dream". The gold medals at the Olympics have made the whole world envious. But who would have thought that behind this glamorous beauty, there is a disgusting scandal.
During the 2016 Rio Olympics, the US women's gymnastics team was in full swing, but an anonymous letter of complaint to pieces like a bomb, tearing the fig leaf of the US Gymnastics Association to pieces.
In 1996, Nassar officially joined the American Gymnastics Association and became the medical management manager of the national team. In 1997, he was hired as an assistant professor at the School of Orthopedic Medicine at Michigan State University, with an annual salary of $100,000. He also published six academic papers on athlete injuries, and his reputation became increasingly popular in the circle.
From the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to the 2012 London Olympics, he followed the US gymnastics team for four Olympics, busy massaging and bandaging athletes, becoming an indispensable figure on the sidelines.
He is also very active on Twitter and Facebook, often posting treatment videos, talking about how to deal with muscle strains, popularizing medical knowledge, and has a lot of fans, and never stopping likes.
In everyone's eyes, Nassar is a "miracle doctor" in the gymnastics industry. He wore a jacket with the American Gymnastics Association logo, smiled kindly and joked. He often stuffed some candy and small gifts to girls during training. Parents all thought he was a great person worth entrusting.
Nassal's career resume looks glamorous, but this glamorous is all fake. He used his identity as a team doctor to approach a young female athlete and relied on his affinity image to deceive trust.
His crimes can be hidden for so long, and it is inseparable from the American Gymnastics Association and Michigan State University. This guy is not an isolated case. The system and chain of interests behind him are the soil for the breeding of sin.
In August 2016, the Rio Olympics were in full swing, and the US women's gymnastics team won the gold medal, and the whole country was staring at their wonderful performance.
But at this moment, the Indianapolis Star and USA Today received an anonymous letter of complaint, saying that team doctor Larry Nassar sexually assaulted a female athlete in training camp.
The reporters immediately took action, flipped through the files, checked records, and found the victims, and dug out the truth that made people's scalp tingling: Nassar has done such dirty things since 1992, with at least 265 victims, and many of them became his target at the age of 13 or 14.
Nassar relied on his identity as a team doctor and committed the crime under the guise of "treatment". He often asked girls to take off their clothes and touch their private parts on the grounds of checking the pelvis or alleviating muscle pain.
The victims are mostly girls aged 13 to 16. They have lived in closed training camps for a long time and have no knowledge of sex education. Faced with the "professional operations" of authoritative doctors, they are puzzled but dare not speak out.
Olympic champion McKayla Maroni joined the national team at the age of 13 and was repeatedly violated by Nassal in 2011 at a Texas training camp. She once mentioned discomfort to her coach, but was called "too sensitive".
Maggie Nichols was injured at Caroliyi training camp in 2015. Nassar violated her in the name of treatment. She confided to her teammate Ellie Lesman, who also said she had similar experiences.
Maggie found coach Sarah Jenz and reported that James reported to American Gymnastics Association President Steve Penney, but the situation was in a dire strait. Maggie was also disqualified from the Olympic qualification.
The American Gymnastics Association's reaction is heartbreaking. In 1997, a 14-year-old girl reported Nassar to her coach and the coach told her to shut up. In 2000, 15-year-old Rachel Dan Holland complained to Michigan State University, and the school found Nassal not guilty after investigation.
In 2014, another victim reported it, and the school still protected him. The association even has a weird rule: sexual assault reports must be signed by parents or witnesses, otherwise it will be "rumor" and will not be dealt with. Penney once told the police that the association had an "internal mediation mechanism", but in fact, he relied on threatening victims and parents to suppress the matter.
After Maggie's mother complained in 2015, Penney called to warn that the matter would ruin the national team's reputation and Maggie's future, and that Maggie's endorsement contract was gone a few days later.
The system's fault is not just about ignoring complaints. The association values gold medals and money more than anything else, and does not regard athletes as human beings at all. In 1976, 14-year-old Romanian Nadia Comaneci won three gold medals at the Montreal Olympics. The American gymnastics industry became jealous and began to recruit a large number of young girls.
These girls are soft and obedient, and can practice difficult movements. Fortunately, they will not resist even if the training conditions are difficult. By 1991, the association's annual income had reached US$12 million, relying on the performance and commercial endorsement of these girls on the field.
The injured girl was asked to play with her injuries and was filmed as an "inspirational story" to attract sponsors. Penny is like a marketing manager, forcing an athlete who sprained ankle to complete the movements, just to shoot a touching video to pull more business orders. Naxal's crimes can be hidden for more than 20 years, and the root cause is this system that only recognizes money but not people.
On July 11, 2017, Naxal pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in federal court and was sentenced to 60 years in prison on December 7. On November 22, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree sexual assault in the Ingham County Circuit Court, Michigan, involving three victims under the age of 13; a week later, he pleaded three more counts of sexual assault in Eaton County.
On January 24, 2018, the Ingham County Court pronounced a verdict that 156 victims stood on the witness stand and stated Nassar's evil deeds one by one. Rachel Dan Holland held a thick confession document and accused it clearly; Ellie Lesman pointed directly at Nassar, angrily accusing him of ruining the lives of countless girls.
Judge Rosemary Aquilina sentenced him to 40 to 175 years in prison, and on February 5, Eaton County added another 40 to 125 years in prison. Nassal was sent to Coleman Prison in the United States and could not apply for parole as early as 2069. At that time, he was 106 years old, which basically meant he died in it.
The scandal pushed the American Gymnastics Association to the forefront. Steve Penney was arrested in October 2018 for suspected hiding evidence. All 18 members of the association's management board resigned, and Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon and athletic director Mark Hollis also stepped down.
In 2018, the school paid $500 million to compensate the victims. On December 13, 2021, the victim negotiated a $380 million settlement agreement with the US Gymnastics Association and the US Olympic Committee, with a total compensation of nearly $900 million.
The association promised to reorganize, and the board of directors added victim representatives, and strengthened safety training and sexual assault prevention. The victims won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and Maggie Nichols won the NCAA motivational Award for his first report.
The two documentaries "Gymnastics A-level Scandal" and "At the Heart of Gold" made this matter clearly, which triggered discussions on the sports system in the whole society.
This incident exposed the roots of the American gymnastics industry. For gold medals and money, the association used young girls as tools, forcing them to play with injuries, and exchanged "inspirational stories" for sponsorship. Penney and his team only see profits, Nassar is just the screws in this machine.
Victim lawyer John Manley made it clear: the association values gold medals more than human nature, and Naxal is just a scapegoat of the system. Caroliyi training camp was permanently closed, and former coach Terry Gray was also arrested for similar crimes, indicating that there was much more than one person.
The victim's pain cannot be smeared with money. Some daughter committed suicide due to depression, while some father committed suicide due to regret. Simone Byers made a loud statement at the Senate hearing in 2021: The dereliction of duty by the association and the Olympic Committee have cost them a heavy price.
This scandal tells everyone that when sports become business, the dignity of athletes is trampled under their feet.
