Aly Raisman is calling out USA Gymnastics once again for demanding she keep quiet about the sexual abuse she and others endured at the hands of Larry Nassar.
She reiterated claims that she made in her 2017 memoir Fierce in an interview with Outside the Lines on Tuesday, stating that after she and fellow gymnast Maggie Nichols spoke up about Nassar’s ‘procedures,’ they were both told to stay silent while the doctor went on to treat other young girls.
‘I was told to be quiet, and I think that when somebody in high power is telling you to be quiet, right when they realized you are abused, I think that that is a threat,’ said Raisman.
‘Especially when their first concern should be to make sure I’m OK, to get information from me, to see if my other teammates were abused, to see what else I knew, to get to the bottom of it.’
The athlete then dismissed recent statements made by USA Gymnastics in the wake of the Nassar scandal, and made it very clear she found the organization’s sentiments hollow and insincere.
‘I don’t think they care, I don’t think they’re sorry. I think they just release their statements, and it’s disappointing,’ said Raisman.
Silent no more: Aly Raisman (above) said that USA Gymnastics asked her to keep quiet about her sexual abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar
‘The second that I realized, I told my mom and then we told USA Gymnastics,’ Raisman said of her 2015 report to the organization.
‘And, to me, it seemed like they threatened me to be quiet. You know, their biggest priority from the beginning and still today is their reputation, the medals they win and the money they make off of us. I don’t think that they care.’
She then added: ‘If they cared, then the second they realized that I was abused, they would have reached out, asked if I needed therapy, asked if I was OK, asked what they could have done and they would have made a big change.
‘Instead, they allowed Larry to continue to work on little girls in Michigan and molest gymnasts for a very long time.’
Raisman later said: ‘I don’t know how they sleep at night.’
The gymnast is currently training in hopes of returning to the Olympics once more in 2020 when the Games will be held in Tokyo.
She will also have her impact statement read at Nassar’s sentencing later this week.
Nassar worked with USA Gymnastics until September 2015, when he suddenly announced his retirement despite saying previously that he planned to work through the Rio Olympics.
‘After 29 years on the USA Gymnastics Women’s Artistic National Team staff, it has come time for me to retire,’ wrote Nassar in a lengthy Facebook post.
It would be another year however until he would be asked to step down from his post at Michigan State University, shortly after Rachael Denhollander became the first woman to file a criminal complaint.
Nassar entered a guilty plea to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ingham County Circuit Court back in November, acknowledging that he sexually penetrated multiple young women and that they were not old enough to give consent.
He broke down in tears at one point, while his most famous victim voiced her rage at the man who allegedly assaulted her on Twitter.
‘Court referring to Larry as DOCTOR Nassar. I AM DISGUSTED. I am very disappointed,’ wrote Raisman.
‘He does NOT deserve that. Larry is disgusting. Larry is a MONSTER not a doctor.’
Nassar said he hoped his plea would help ‘to move the community forward and stop the hurting’ before adding: ‘I pray the rosary every day for forgiveness’
In his statement he also said: ‘I want them to heal. I want this community to heal. I have no animosity toward anyone. I just want healing. It’s time.’
Nassar was forced to verbally confess to each offense in court, and agreed to wearing a monitoring device and have his electronic activity monitored for life as port of the plea.
At the end of the hearing, the presiding judge had a few words for Nassar.
‘You used that position of trust that you had in the most vile way — to abuse children,’ said Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
‘I agree that now is a time of healing, but it might take them a lifetime of healing while you spend your lifetime behind bars thinking about what you did in taking away their childhood.’
Nassar was also sentenced to 60 years behind bars on federal charges after he was found in possession of pornography back in December.
He is appealing that sentence.