Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson has slammed USA Gymnastics for ‘failing to protect its athletes’ and says if she had a daughter right now, she wouldn’t let her join the sport.
The 26-year-old expressed her outrage in an emotional video posted on YouTube on Monday.
In the video, Johnson said called the athletes who have spoken out about being sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar, her ‘heroes’.
Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson (pictured) has slammed USA Gymnastics for ‘failing to protect its athletes’ and says if she had a daughter right now, she wouldn’t let her join the sport
The 26-year-old (left and right at the Beijing Olympics in 2008) expressed her outrage in an emotional video posted on YouTube. In the video, Johnson said called the athletes who have spoken out about being sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar, her ‘heroes’
‘Know I’m praying for you. I love you. You have experienced some of the worst evil in the world and to know you guys have a voice and you’re standing up for so many people just know you are my heroes,’ she said through tears.
Johnson then went on to call out USA Gymnastics for ‘failing’ their athletes.
‘Knowing that USA gymnastics has failed their athletes so terribly disappoints me and makes me so incredibly angry.
‘I think the fact that any of this has ever happened shows that USA gymnastics has failed as a governing body to protect the athletes that it supports and claims to care about,’ she said.
Johnson, who retired from the sport in 2012, made it clear she believes USA Gymnastics needs to ‘change the system completely’.
‘I think USA Gymnastics for a very, very long time has focused on nothing but winning gold medals [so] that they have overlooked the simple and most important fact that the people they are dealing with are minors and are children,’ Johnson said.
Johnson (pictured in 2008) then went on to call out USA Gymnastics for ‘failing’ their athletes. ‘Knowing that USA gymnastics has failed their athletes so terribly disappoints me and makes me so incredibly angry’
Johnson (pictured in 2008), who retired from the sport in 2012, made it clear she believes USA Gymnastics needs to ‘change the system completely’
‘I think gymnastics is the best sport in the entire world, but if I had a daughter right now, I wouldn’t put her in it,’ Johnson continued. ‘And that makes me really sad because I can’t even trust USA Gymnastics.’
‘I don’t know how to fix it except for start over,’ she said. ‘Start over completely. Until we protect these little girls as human beings, instead of protect them as gymnasts just to make sure they win gold medals, we aren’t going to make any progress that is meaningful.’
Johnson won four medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won gold on the balance beam and silver for team, all-around and floor exercise.
She also won three gold medals at the 2007 World Championships – team, all-around and floor exercise.
Mattie Larson unleashed on the pedophile doctor in court on Tuesday, recalling the horrific assaults she was forced to endure starting at the age of 14 while she attended the Karolyi Ranch in Texas to train at the national camp.
Emotional moment: Mattie Larson (above on Tuesday) revealed that she was one of the victims who was sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar in court
Monster: ‘Larry, I can’t even put into words how much I f***ing hate you,’ said Larson, who was the national champ on floor exercise in 2010 (Nassar in court on Tuesday)
She revealed that a USA Gymnastics representative was in the room while she was assaulted by Nassar, before calling out Martha and Bella Karolyi along with Nastia Liukin’s father Valeri for allegedly fostering an atmosphere that allowed Nassar to thrive.
It all became too much for Larson, who revealed she stepped away from the sport in 2010 shortly after trying to give herself a concussion by purposely falling on the bathroom floor in a bid to skip training at the national camp.
Soon after, she left the sport at the age of 18, despite having just won the national title in floor exercise and earning second in the world at that apparatus.
Larson is one of the 150 individuals who have now given impact statements in court against Nassar, and just three more remain.
Those three victims will speak Wednesday morning, and then Judge Rosemarie Aquilina will sentence Nassar.
He is facing just seven counts of criminal sexual conduct as part of his plea deal, but Judge Aqiuilina has assured multiple victims this week that he will never again be a free man.