Gymnastics is a sport notorious for its difficulty. Watching people flying through the air with grace and sticking a landing with poise fills the viewer with a sense of awe, and the amount of effort, training, and discipline required to compete in gymnastics is clear to see. Gymnastics requires more than just physical effort, though. It requires dedication to several practices per day, weight monitoring, unavoidable injuries, and taking harsh criticism. It is no surprise that in a sport so rigorous and disciplined, the culture is rampant with emotional abuse, physical abuse, and famously, sexual abuse.
Gymnastics is a sport highly populated with young women and children, which is part of why abuse is so prominent within gymnastics teams and organizations. An adult leadership position in gymnastics is the perfect role for somebody looking to control and harm vulnerable adolescents. Sadly, gymnastics in the U.S. has become a breeding ground for abuse of all sorts, and those in power have made great efforts to hide this fact from the public eye. Recently, the Netflix documentary “Athlete A” broke the silence and gave the public a glimpse into the abuse that young girls and women face in the nation’s beloved sport.
The women interviewed in Athlete A recount abuse of all kinds, not only sexual, but physical, mental, and emotional as well. These other forms of abuse laid the framework for sexual abuse by breaking down the girls’ sense of bodily autonomy and giving the coaches complete control of the girls’ lives. Coaches are said to have forced girls to develop eating disorders, delayed their maturation, controlled their menstruation, forced them to compete with injuries, and were known to pride the girls on their endurance of pain. USA Gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi were notorious for being ruthless to the girls that they coached. Many victims say that they believed that the sexual abuse that they endured was normal and simply part of the painful, traumatic experience of being a gymnast.
In the case of the osteopath employed by USA Gymnastics Larry Nassar, he normalized his abusive practices by offering the athletes a kindness that was so rare to find in the realm of elite gymnastics. One victim recounts that “he was the only nice adult.” Nassar earned their trust and their favor and then preyed on the girls’ vulnerability and their desire to be treated with kindness. It is also worth noting that Nassar has worked with gymnastics teams for 29 years, giving him a high amount of credibility that ultimately caused these girls to believe that the abuse was standard medical procedure. But how could a man who abused so many young women get away with it for so long? The answer to that question lies in the complicity of the administration of USA Gymnastics.
Much of the documentary focuses on the role of the admin at USA Gymnastics in the coverup and normalization of abuse within the program. In particular, President Stephen Penny Jr. appears to have played a massive role in the suppression of victim accusations against coaches and doctors. Over 54 coaches were accused of sexual abuse, and over a dozen accusations were made against Dr. Nassar, many of which were reported to Penny. Penny avoided addressing these accusations in a number of ways. His primary system to suppress victim accusations was to require that either a parent, victim, or eyewitness sign off on the accusation or else it would be dismissed as hearsay. Most accusations fell into this category and were never handed over to the authorities. One parent says that Penny specifically told her not to go to the police and that he would handle it (he didn’t), and another victim says that she never even reported the assault because she knew that “abuse victims are not treated well.” Penny shows us that the mistreatment of survivors has deeper roots than just harassment on social media from strangers. Penny was also found to have offered an FBI agent investigating a sexual abuse case against USA Gymnastics a high-paying job in an attempt to influence the investigation in his favor. The suppression of accusations at USA Gymnastics is systematic and institutional.
The culture of USA Gymnastics promoted obedience and perseverance in the face of pain and discomfort. Many of the young victims did not understand that they were being sexually abused because they were so used to discomfort, and they so deeply trusted what the adults around them told them that they believed that what was happening to them was normal. This trust and naivete made them vulnerable to Dr. Nassar and his supposed medical procedures. If a victim even reported their abuse at the hands of Dr. Nassar, it was kept secret by Penny. This created the illusion that nobody else was reporting anything bad about Nassar, which caused girls to think that what he was doing must be fine. Victims casually spoke to each other about Nassar penetrating them vaginally, reaffirming their belief that this was normal medical practice.
When the news broadcasted Nassar saying that he never penetrated athletes vaginally, over 100 women called in to say otherwise. How many of these women never realized until that moment that their experience was abuse? This feedback loop of victims not recognizing their abuse and reports of abuse being silenced kept the cycle going unimpeded for over 4 years. In the end, 500 of Nassar’s victims came forward, many of whom were victimized after the initial accusation by Maggie Nichols in 2015. As lawyer John Manley put it: most of these girls should never have met Larry Nassar had the people in charge of him done the right thing.
The main thought that I took away from this documentary was that the abuse within USA Gymnastics was institutional, and those in charge were purposefully negligent. The depth of the system of abuse that we saw within USA Gymnastics is alarming. Unfortunately, this type of systematic, institutional abuse is not unique to USA Gymnastics or even gymnastics itself. This type of abuse arises in so many environments where adults hold power over adolescents and young adults. We have seen it happen in multiple organizations including the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church, both following the same M.O. as USA Gymnastics; trusted adults in positions of power prey on the children under their care.
Obviously this kind of abuse is not present in all organizations and not all adults in positions of power are predators. Athlete A is simply a harrowing reminder that institutional abuse is real, it is devastating, and those in power will perpetuate it for their own personal gain. I am left with the thought that not only do we have to be vigilant in our criticisms of organizations working with children to ensure that systemic abuse is not occuring, but we also must be critical of institutions that handle abuse allegations. We are hearing more and more accounts from college students saying that their cases have been dismissed, they were shamed, and some even have been punished for making their accusations. Part of the system of abuse is victim suppression.
Systemic abuse can arise in just about any organization. Athlete A has shown us the range of horrors that are possible when those in power are complicit. This leaves us with a question to which I do not have an answer, but it is vital that we ask it.
What can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?
Hi, I’m Sandy! I’m a high school math and science teacher and a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, class of 2020, where I studied astrophysics and music performance. My drive for co-founding Survivors was primarily my own experience with sexual violence as a teenager. I wanted to be able to provide the resources and support to young survivors that I didn’t have when I needed it most. I want to give survivors a place to speak freely about their own experiences without fear of repercussions, and more importantly, give them a place to heal and feel powerful. Outside of Survivors, in my spare time, I like to play video games, hike, and drink coffee. treasurer@survivorstosuperheroes.org
