A Jewish Olympic medalist is accusing the team doctor of sexually abusing her.
Aly Raisman, a six-time Olympic medalist, told CBS’ 60 Minutes that she first went to Dr. Larry Nasar, who was a volunteer team doctor for the United States’ gymnastics team, for treatment when she was 15 years old.
Raisman was irked that the USA Gymnastics culture discouraged the girls that Nassar allegedly abused from speaking out sooner.
“I am angry,” said Raisman. “I’m really upset because it’s been — I care a lot, you know, when I see these young girls that come up to me, and they ask for pictures or autographs, whatever it is, I just — I can’t — every time I look at them, every time I see them smiling, I just think — I just want to create change so that they never, ever have to go through this.”
Nassar is facing over a 100 lawsuits from athletes and gymnasts at Michigan State and on the Olympics team for sexually abusing them while claiming it was for treatment. For instance, Nassar allegedly used his fingers to penetrate them as well as grope them by stating that it was treatment. Nassar’s defense is that such methods were legitimate forms of treatment.
McKayla Maroney, one of Raisman’s gymnastics teammates, claimed that Nassar twice abused her by claiming it was “treatment” and referred to one of the instances as “the scariest night of my life.”
The former Olympic doctor is currently in prison for pleading guilty to child pornography.
