Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman says that she was sexually abused by her team’s disgraced former doctor, Larry Nassar.
In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” set to air on Sunday, Raisman says she’s “angry” that USA Gymnastics didn’t address sooner the rampant allegations against Nassar. More than 100 women and girls, including Raisman’s teammate McKayla Maroney, have accused the former USA Gymnastics doctor of sexual abuse spanning decades.
“Why are we looking at why didn’t the girls speak up?” Raisman said of people who have asked why the athletes didn’t speak out earlier. “Why not look at what about the culture? What did USA Gymnastics do, and Larry Nassar do, to manipulate these girls so much that they are so afraid to speak up?”
Raisman has spoken out about Nassar before, but has never accused him of abusing her.
In August, she told The Guardian that “what people don’t realize is that this doctor was a doctor for 29 years.”
“Whether or not he did it to a gymnast, they still knew him. Even if he didn’t do it to you, it’s still the trauma and the anxiety of wondering what could have happened. I think that needs to be addressed,” she said. “These girls, they should be comfortable going to USA Gymnastics and saying ‘I need help, I want therapy. I need this.
Raisman has been an outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual abuse.
“The statistics are just alarming, it’s one in four girls are sexually abused, and those are just the girls that speak up and that was from a couple of years ago,” she told People magazine in April. “I can’t tell you how many girls I know that have been sexually abused at some point in their life and it’s so sad.”
Nassar pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in July and is awaiting sentencing.
In a statement Friday morning, USA Gymnastics said it was “appalled by the conduct of which Larry Nassar is accused, and... very sorry that any athlete has been harmed during her or his gymnastics career.”