As one gymnast recalls, "Every time I'd get an injury I wasn't believed.

Those in power first took advantage of and later attempted to silence scores of young athletes. Alesia, a journalist at the IndyStar, explains how Denhollander turned up with about 100 pages of medical notes and a case prepared against Nassar. Meanwhile, reporters wondered: If there were three Nassar victims contacting the newspaper, how many more could there be? I’m here today, with all these other women, not victims, but survivors, to tell you face-to-face, that your days of manipulation are over.

Summer 1936 – Berlin, The U.S. sends its first women’s gymnastics team to the Olympics. Like many Americans, we are also fans of watching women’s gymnastics every four. Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix: All the theories behind the ‘Stolen Kids’ episode, Inside the UK TikTok houses worth millions, where teens make annoying videos full time, What happened to JoAnn Romain? All Rights Reserved. We want to hear from you, Exclusive: Cambridge’s plan to give students weekly Covid tests will cost £1.3 million, Meet the celebs who are in new Celebrity Gogglebox, including the Line of Duty cast, #EndSARS: What’s happening in Nigeria right now, and how you can help. Reporting abuse? Laws at the state and national level govern mandatory reporting rules, definitions of abuse and assault, statutes of limitation, and other laws related to sexual abuse. That was criticised by American four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles and Denhollander, among others. But, over the years, it became very much about the marketing of the athletes. What factors can make competitive and elite sports less healthy, or harmful? The case of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor who was accused of sexually abusing at least 250 girls over his decades-long career, exposed one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in U.S. sports history. Ask questions about the hiring practices and policies around sexual abuse in place at any organization your child may become involved with.

Historically, societal understanding and agreement about child abuse is relatively new. Summer 1972 – Munich Olympics, Russian gymnast Olga Korbut wins three gold medals and her performance redefines the sport from emphasising ballet and elegance to acrobatics and technique. What do we learn about American culture from this story? Last updated on 24 June 202024 June 2020.From the section Gymnastics. What are some of the ways we learn that survivors gained their voice and power over the course of the documentary? Just a day after Larry Nassar was sentenced Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), who have oversight authority over amateur sports, including USOC and its affiliated NGBs, convened the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer Protection. As the way people are consuming news is changing, so is the landscape of support for the kind of local, investigative journalism featured in Athlete A. In response to these public statements, Nassar's lawyers denied he had ever touched a patient inappropriately during treatment. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. Dec. 16, 2016 – Nassar indicted on federal child pornography charges: Larry Nassar indicted on federal child porn charges (Lansing State Journal). The USOC governs all the National Governing Boards of amateur sports associations in the United States that associate with international athletic competitions. , what systems of accountability failed and which succeeded? Nassar becomes a team physician and assistant professor at MSU. In crafting the film, Cohen and Shenk wanted to bring to light how systemic abuse was endemic to USA Gymnastics, which prepares athletes to compete in the Olympics. In training its lens on athletes vying for a coveted spot on the American Olympic team, as well as junior gymnasts coming up the ranks, Athlete A investigates systemic abuse and institutionalized corruption within the world of gymnastics. Rather than offer answers about what USA Gymnastics should do going forward, Athlete A closes on a hopeful note of what gymnastics itself can look like when athletes are removed from an abusive environment. Like it just happened to you, like you are 15.”, “USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee did not provide a safe environment for me and my teammates and friends to train. Penny refutes any suggestion of a cover-up and denies any wrongdoing. And, she notes, "There's also the benefit of the coaches having more control when the girls are younger.". As parents, we were floored by the experience of getting to know the families of the survivors. The Online Discussion Guide developed for Athlete A provides a framework and resources to help audiences dig deeper into this story by focusing on these key areas: In Athlete A we learn of how the multiple layers of mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics were covered up, and how institutions such as the US Olympic Committee and Michigan State University, were similarly complicit by suppressing reports of abuse and prioritizing their reputation, money, and power over the health, well-being, and safety of its gymnasts.

Fact-finding is difficult, painstaking work.

"Ultimately, she got to know the journalists who were telling the story.". Maggie represented the United States in international competitions, including the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she won a team gold medal and an individual bronze medal on floor. Title IX enforcement has included policies and procedures related to sexual harassment, abuse and assault at schools. ", Shenk says: "Ultimately, it's a story about people who were taken advantage of by an organisation that lost sight of its responsibility.". Where do sports fit into our lives, our children’s lives? You only have to look at the staggering number of Catholic Church sexual abuse investigations, or the Jerry Sandusky story, or the Jeffrey Epstein one, or the R. Kelly one, to see clear and dispiriting patterns. Sexual abuse in USA Gymnastics did not begin with Larry Nassar. Copyright © 2019 Salon.com, LLC. - Jen Sey, Athlete A, Former Gymnast, Author of Chalked Up, - Steve Berta, Investigations Editor, The Indianapolis Star. Of the survivors, there are three main focal points - former USA gymnasts Maggie Nichols, Denhollander and Jamie Dantzscher. But if I don’t, he can continue, and I hate that idea more.”, “When something hits you like, that realization, that it was sexual abuse, and you haven’t known, haven’t thought about it, it becomes so real. Ask your school about their policies and hiring practices, and how they train teachers to comply with those policies. He believes that those in power were guilty of neglect as gymnastics became more marketable. There are moments in "Athlete A" — the court document name of Nassar survivor Maggie Nichols — that will make you gasp at the brazen brutality of Nassar's crimes. I’d like to think no matter how powerful or how much money I made, I’d never cover up something like this.”. The film wisely spends the majority of its time with the survivors and their advocates, keeping the focus — and our attention — appropriately where it should be. She has six siblings and reportedly decided on a career in gymnastics after seeing it on the TV and loving it. As Athlete A shows, USA Gymnastics did not immediately act on Nichols’ report, leaving Nassar free to continue his abuse as he held his job as an osteopathic physician at Michigan State University until he was arrested in 2016. July 1984 – LA Olympics, Mary Lou Retton becomes first woman from a non-Eastern Bloc country to win the Olympic all-around title. But there is something everyone can do to support independent investigative journalism: Pay for Your Online News – paying for a subscription to your favorite news source helps fund further investigative effortt, Support Your Local News Sources – this list of organizations supports local news efforts around the country, and around the world. Justice was served. Athlete A is an important documentary for anyone who loves sports – the athletes, parents, coaches, sports organizations and teams who work so hard and believe in the healthy benefits of engaging in competition. Get all the latest from Jermaine and the team, Oct 2017: Olympic gymnast Maroney makes abuse claim, Jan 2018: Nassar abused me - four-time Olympic champion Biles, Feb 2018: Nassar jailed for up to 300 years for abusing at least 265 women, Dec 2018: US Olympics Committee apologises for Nassar failings, Jan 2020: USAG offers $215m to abused athletes, sentenced to more than 300 years for molesting young gymnasts, Penny resigned from USAG in 2017 and was subsequently, arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence. in 2008, about systemic psychological and physical abuse inside USA Gymnastics. After she started her elite career, Jennifer went on to become a seven-time member of the United States national team. QUIZ: Which character from The Nightmare Before Christmas are you? Denhollander, who is now a lawyer, was the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar. What systems of accountability are in place for organizations that are not overseen by government agencies? USAG and USOC failed to uphold their statutory purposes and duties to protect amateur athletes from sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. Read an overview of Federal and State Reporting Laws from SafeSport. Facing financial difficulty, USAG begins soliciting funds from McDonald’s, Dodge, K-Mart, and others, ushering in a new era for the organization. Jen Sey, the 1986 U.S. national women’s gymnastics champion, asked us if we would be interested in telling the story behind the downfall of Larry Nassar, who at the time stood accused of sexually assaulting several current and former athletes at Michigan State and in the U.S. Olympic program. Their website, REVEAL, is where CIR publishes its reporting. Nassar was able to abuse over 300 athletes over two decades because of ineffective oversight by USAG and USOC. “We were positioned to tell this story of how things can go right if you create a situation in which justice can be served,” she says. In the documentary, Sey argues that emotional and physical abuse "was actually the norm" during her time as a gymnast. In 2018, Maggie Nichols became the NCAA National All-Round Champion and defended the title in 2019. USA Gymnastics replaces USGF, opens office in Indianapolis with Mike Jacki at the helm. Rachael Denhollander has a degree from Oak Brook College of Law in Fresno, California, and by 25 had passed the California bar exam. Officials at USOC, USAG, MSU and the FBI sat on evidence of sexual misconduct for over a year and failed to act – allowing for additional sexual abuse of dozens of other girls. Gymnastics moves from a niche sport to one of the most popular sports in the world. It recommended  a massive personnel and policy change at the US Olympic Committee, and throughout the National Governing Bodies it oversees. Further resources available for parents at: To encourage girls to have healthy relationship with athletics: Title IX of the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights guarantees that students are free from sex discrimination at any public school.