Sexual assault scandal: Raisman says USA Gymnastics needs change

AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

The 23-year-old Jewish-American Olympian is calling for sweeping change in the organisation in the wake of dozens of allegations of sexual abuse by former national team doctor Larry Nassar, a scandal that has left one of the US Olympic movement’s marquee programmes scrambling and Raisman shaken.

Nassar spent nearly 30 years as an osteopath with the USA Gymnastics programme and is now in prison in Michigan after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. He is awaiting trial on separate criminal sexual conduct charges, in addition to being sued by more than 125 women who claim he sexually assaulted them under the guise of treatment.

Nassar has pleaded not guilty to the assault charges, and the dozens of civil suits filed in Michigan are currently in mediation.

Raisman, who was around Nassar regularly at the team’s training facility in Texas and at meetings around the globe, declined to talk about whether she was treated improperly by Nassar.

She did agree to speak more generally, calling Nassar “a monster” and blaming USA Gymnastics for failing to stop him and spending too much of the fallout attempting to “sweep it under the rug”.

“I feel like there’s a lot of articles about it, but nobody has said: ‘This is horrible, this is what we’re doing to change’,” Raisman said in a wide-ranging interview last Saturday shortly after she and other members of the “Final Five” that won team gold at the 2016 Olympics, were inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Raisman served as a captain for both the “Final Five” and the “Fierce Five” that won gold in London in 2012. While several alleged Nassar victims have come forward, including 2000 Olympic bronze medallist Jamie Dantzscher, Raisman is the highest profile athlete yet to publicly reprimand the organisation.

Raisman said she kept quiet waiting after the initial allegations surfaced last summer, waiting for USA Gymnastics to own up to its mistakes.

While it is taking steps towards creating a safer environment for its athletes, she doesn’t believe it is doing nearly enough, adding that she feels USA Gymnastics is trying to get on with business as usual.

“What people don’t realise is that this doctor was a doctor for 29 years,” Raisman says. “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.

“These girls, they should be comfortable going to USA Gymnastics and saying: ‘I need help, I want therapy. I need this’.”

USA Gymnastics launched an independent review of its policies in the wake of the allegations against Nassar and reporting by the Indianapolis Star that highlighted chronic mishandling of abuse allegations against coaches and staff at some of its more than 3 500 clubs across the country.

In June, the federation immediately adopted 70 recommendations proffered by Deborah Daniels, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw the review. The new guidelines require member gyms to go to authorities immediately, with Daniels suggesting USA Gymnastics consider withholding membership from clubs that decline to do so.

The organisation also named Toby Stark, a child welfare advocate, as its director of SafeSport. Part of Stark’s mandate is educating members on rules, educational programmes, reporting and adjudication services.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement late last Saturday it welcomes Raisman’s passion, adding it’s “appalled” by the accusations against Nassar.

“We are taking this issue head-on, and we want to work with Aly and all interested athletes to keep athletes safe,” USA Gymnastics said.

Daniels said repeatedly when her review was published, that she wasn’t hired to make judgements on past missteps, something that doesn’t fly with Raisman.

She pointed to the reported $1 million severance package given to former president, Steve Penny, after he resigned under pressure in March as proof that the organisation just doesn’t get it.

“I thought: ‘Wow, why couldn’t they create a programme?’” Raisman said. “A million dollars is a lot of money. They could do a lot of things to create change. They could create a programme.

Raisman stressed there’s a difference between her criticism of USA Gymnastics and the sport as a whole.

The sport is fine. She loves gymnastics. It’s the parent organisation that needs to undergo a transformation.

“Everyone is important,” Raisman said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the Olympic champion or you’re an eight-year-old that goes to gymnastics in Ohio, or wherever you are in the US. Every single kid is important and I want USA Gymnastics to do a better job with that.”