Lawsuits against USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar, etc. - news & updates

[pollyanna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ozvIw1a7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ozvIw1a7E
Mattie Larson on GMA this morning - heartbreaking.

 

[justAfsfan]

My only word is that the Kaloyi, the board and the ex CEO of USAG must also be punished.

The Kaloyi especially, has been hiding under radar which is disgusting.

 

[ilovepaydays]

Aly Raisman on the Today Show this morning. Very good interview.

 

[Erin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ozvIw1a7E
Mattie Larson on GMA this morning - heartbreaking.

For all the crap that Mattie took from the adults on the 2010 team for supposedly costing the US the gold medal, I loved that the ticker on GMA labeled her as a World Champion. It's one time I won't nitpick about lack of fact checking. Just goes to show that years later, no one remembers who won the gold medal in 2010, so it makes the treatment she received even more ridiculous, not that it was ever justified to treat someone like that.

 

[Aceon6]

And the MSU president leaves with tons of perks.
Highlights from an analysis of her contract.
“In the 200+ presidential contracts we’ve reviewed, this is the only contract that provides for the president to receive 100 percent of their last presidential base salary for the first year that they return to the faculty,”
and
“So based on this contract, it would appear that Dr. Simon will be paid more than twice the amount of the most highly paid faculty member in the College of Education. In addition, she will be paid more than the most highly paid faculty member in the entire university, C. Konrad Gelbke who makes $433,441. He is one of the world’s leading physicists.”
and
The contract also spells out a number of lifetime perks Simon and her husband will receive:
▪ Parking passes for on-campus parking
▪ Two free tickets to home football games for the Spartan Club suites
▪ Two free tickets to women’s basketball games
▪ The option to buy up to four men’s basketball tickets in the same location she currently has seats
▪ Reduced-price tickets for bowl games and post-season play for football, men’s and women’s basketball and ice hockey
▪ Parking pass for all home sporting and cultural events
“Other than the granting of emeritus status, we rarely see such benefits in any contracts,” Finkelstein said. “What is extremely unusual about these benefits is that so many of these are related to sporting events.
“In fact, this is the only contract that we’ve seen with these specific types of benefits.

So Lou Anna is a sports nut, but knew absolutely nothing about what went on with the gymnastics team. Brava!

 

[rudi]

Proud of Mattie, especially for calling out Marta in her statement. The part about being invisible to them/ignored by them once you are of no use to them, whether it be through a mistake made at a meet or an injury/illness, is spot on. And they are not the only coaches that operate this way.

She said it best in the GMA interview:
"It was a systemic problem, and he was just a piece of the puzzle."

As horrific as Nassar's abuse was, there were (and probably still are) other (physical and emotional) abuses going on in the sport. Am so happy to see things are starting to happen. John (Geddart) being suspended is a start. Valeri needs to be out IMHO, as well as others. I only know about USAG and don't know anyone at, or anything about, MSU; however, in hearing the victims' statements, it appears that there are other folks at MSU that also need to go aside from just the president.

And incidentally, a friend of mine just told me that Dominique M. is going to do an interview tomorrow on Fox News where she talks about the abuse (not specifically regarding Nassar, but am guessing in general) and how she was blacklisted. I love that she is getting some vindication too. Back when she spoke up, there were people who should have had her back and all but called her a liar.

 

[VGThuy]

I'm glad all the victim impact statements were not only said on record but made public via video. It's important to show Nassar was far from an outlier and see how the system encourage this to fester. Nassar is far from the only case where this happened, and it's been going on for decades.

 

[pollyanna]

Posted by @Sylvia in the Come Back Gracie Gold thread.

Gracie's tweet re. Larry Nassar's sentencing yesterday

https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/come-back-gracie.102886/page-2#post-5264144

 

[pollyanna]

Read Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's powerful statement to Larry Nassar

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/judge-rosemarie-aquilina-full-statement/index.html

Part of Nassar's letter he wrote in court to defend himself:

"I was a good doctor because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over and referred family and friends to see me. The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath not fury like a woman scorned. It is just a complete nightmare. The stories that are being fabricated to sensationalize this than the AG would only accept my plea if I said what I did was not medical and was for my own pleasure. They forced me to say that or they were going to trial and not accepting the plea. I wanted to plea no contest, but the AG refused that. I was so manipulated by the AG and now Aquilina. And all I wanted was to minimize the stress like I wrote earlier."

This pervert is unbelievable. Thank goodness he'll die in prison and won't be able to victimize any more children.

 

[VGThuy]

That section was DISGUSTING. The AG is not there to work with him and give him the best deal. He acts like he was entitled to something more. The AG has evidence in front of them and decides what deals they are willing to accept to submit to the judge for approval. He also had the power to accept and reject pleas. He could have easily went to trial, proved that his procedures were completely medical, and discredit the witnesses. He knew he could not because what he did was perverted, exploitative, and done for sexual gratification. He loved grooming his victims and being the "one good adult" in their lives because it made it easier for him to do what he did. His whole statement and reasons he gave the Court as to why he should not sit in the witness box and listen to days of victim impact statements was incredibly ridiculous and shows a man who still thinks he has power over people and could manipulate his way out of the situation. Like what he actually gave to the Court was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. He really thought making those accusations would have worked. If he truly felt that he was tricked or manipulated into accepting his plea than he could have taken the judge on her offer to reject the plea when she addressed his letter about his hardship about having to listen to the victim statements in his sentencing.

 

[judiz]

20/20 will be doing a report on the
case and USAG on Friday night’s episode

 

[Artistic Skaters]

Kevin Martinez resigned from the USAG board. He was a new board member after Nassar. Still waiting to read about the rest of the board resignations recommended by USOC. Tick tock ... ...

 

[Choupette]

I'm so frustrated that the Karolyis both got to end their coaching careers on their own terms. Almost 50 years of abusive behavior towards young girls and making money off their back, and zero consequence even though their own abuse has been well known for about half of that time. Geddert also said he was retiring since he was 60.

Knowing what we know now, the Karolyis need to be dragged back here from whatever corner of the world they are hiding from, investigated, charged, prosecuted, and be forced to answer for their actions. There is no way in hell that they didn’t know what was going on. They set up that training center in the middle of nowhere with no easily accessible communication to the outside world on purpose. Dominique Moceanu has been steadfast and consistent about what happened to her there, and her parents were there. She lived at home. What about those poor kids whose parents were thousands of miles away? They bred so much fear in those girls that they were afraid to report anything to anyone. What about the other coaches that were afraid of the Karolyis and saw things and did nothing? Most, if not all, of those elite coaches knew that what was happening there wasn’t right. Are those the secrets that Mattie referred to in her statement? I am sad for all of these girls.

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if Marta Karolyi really didn't know about the sexual abuse. Even the girls' personal coaches apparently didn't know.

As for the secrets Mattie mentioned, I assumed she was referring to the awful overall treatment of the gymnasts from Marta.

I just hope that the investigations continue. USA gymnastics needs to be entirely dismantled. It sounds like Valeri Liukin needs to be investigated at the very least and possibly removed. I will never see gymnastics the same way again. This time of year I usually get excited because SCAM cup is maybe 6-8 weeks away. I looked forward to bashing Tim Daggett and cursing every time I hear the phrase “Gymnastics 101.” It’s fun to be rolling my eyes at Nastia and her self-absorption. Now it just makes me sad. All I can think about is the personal hell that many of those girls live thru just to be there.

I'd love to watch the American Cup and, for once, see the American gymnasts being talked about as athletes, not as small children trying to please the "coordinator".

And incidentally, a friend of mine just told me that Dominique M. is going to do an interview tomorrow on Fox News where she talks about the abuse (not specifically regarding Nassar, but am guessing in general) and how she was blacklisted. I love that she is getting some vindication too. Back when she spoke up, there were people who should have had her back and all but called her a liar.

Back in 1996, I couldn't stand all the attention around Moceanu because of the Karolyis, her father, the Nadia ressemblance I could never see and the 1996 Olympic AA champion I didn't foresee either. It got so much on my nerves. Over 20 years later, there is nothing more I would like than to see Moceanu getting a lot of attention.

 

[danafan]

USOC gives USA Gymnastics board six days to resign or federation will be decertified


https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

ETA: USAG Response https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=21238&prog=h

And the link includes the actual letter from USOC.

https://usagym.org/PDFs/Home/usoc_012518.pdf

 

[Erin]

It's ridiculous that it took the USOC this long to take action. This should have happened over a year ago when it was clear that it was a systemic problem and not an isolated incident.

It's also ridiculous that the USOC action was required in the first place for this to come about.

It makes me sad that USAG has lost basically all of their sponsors over this and future gymnasts will basically have no support, all of which could have been prevented if USAG had acted properly in the first place.

 

[Karina1974]

Read Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's powerful statement to Larry Nassar

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/judge-rosemarie-aquilina-full-statement/index.html


Part of Nassar's letter he wrote in court to defend himself:

"I was a good doctor because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over and referred family and friends to see me. The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath not fury like a woman scorned. It is just a complete nightmare. The stories that are being fabricated to sensationalize this than the AG would only accept my plea if I said what I did was not medical and was for my own pleasure. They forced me to say that or they were going to trial and not accepting the plea. I wanted to plea no contest, but the AG refused that. I was so manipulated by the AG and now Aquilina. And all I wanted was to minimize the stress like I wrote earlier."

This pervert is unbelievable. Thank goodness he'll die in prison and won't be able to victimize any more children.

Typical. Narcissist. They all can shit the prettiest rainbows until they get told what they are really spewing, and then they turn it around and try to make it seem like THEY are the victim. BTDT.

 

[Karina1974]

20/20 will be doing a report on the
case and USAG on Friday night’s episode

I hope all the folks I'm seeing on Facebook and other SM trying to blame the victims and saying "where were the parents?" watch this. There is a LOT of ignorance about USAG and the control they wielded over these young women. There was a thread about this on another forum I sub to that was completely removed because of some of the comments being made.

 

[FiveRinger]

USA Gymnastics has almost always had a culture of fear and intimidation, which the Karolyis perfected and Nassar was able to take full advantage of that.

I was looking for a list of the Board of Directors, and, surprise, it has been removed from the website. I did find minutes from a December meeting, where roll call was listed and present members included Kelli Hill, Ivana Hong, and Cathy Rigby. Wikipedia lists John Roethlisburger, Mary Lou Retton, and Kim Zmeksal as board members. Are these people part of the 18 members that are required to resign by the end of the month in order for USA Gymnastics to keep its certification? (Hong has said some problematic things recently, so if that’s true I wouldn’t feel bad. And wasn’t Mary Lou accused of trying to block passage of a child abuse bill? Does someone have details about that?)

 

[Aceon6]

USA Gymnastics has almost always had a culture of fear and intimidation, which the Karolyis perfected and Nassar was able to take full advantage of that.

I was looking for a list of the Board of Directors, and, surprise, it has been removed from the website. I did find minutes from a December meeting, where roll call was listed and present members included Kelli Hill, Ivana Hong, and Cathy Rigby. Wikipedia lists John Roethlisburger, Mary Lou Retton, and Kim Zmeksal as board members. Are these people part of the 18 members that are required to resign by the end of the month in order for USA Gymnastics to keep its certification? (Hong has said some problematic things recently, so if that’s true I wouldn’t feel bad. And wasn’t Mary Lou accused of trying to block passage of a child abuse bill? Does someone have details about that?)

If I'm reading correctly, only the current Athlete Representatives can stay. From USAG's site, the 2018 elected reps are Ivana Hong, women’s gymnastics; Steve Legendre, men’s gymnastics; Rebecca Sereda, rhythmic gymnastics; Alex Renkert, trampoline and tumbling; and Jessica Renteria, acrobatic gymnastics.

 

[Erin]

@FiveRinger, someone tweeted a screenshot before they were taken down:
https://twitter.com/chickennuglife/status/956631705418326016

Note that Martinez already resigned. He only joined 9 months ago, saying he wanted to create positive change, but said it wasn't possible with this board. That speaks volumes in my opinion.

You are correct that Hill, Hong, and Rigby are on the board. The Wikipedia info is wrong.

@Aceon6 i believe the athlete reps have to also resign but can be placed on the interim board and can be the same reps that are eventually reelected. But they do need to go through the process of being reelected to stay on permanently. Which is good if Lynn Raisman's allegations about USAG's interference in the last round of election of athlete reps was true.

ETA - even though I'm sure some board members were good and had nothing to do with this, I think it's important to start fresh. That said, there is more cleaning house that needs to happen inside USA Gymnastics. Starting with Valeri Liukin.

 

[VGThuy]

What has Ivana Hong said? Considering she had to endure a very problematic situation with Al Fong, that's disappointing.

 

[Erin]

Not sure what she said, but this thread is where I read the concerns about her (need to scroll down a bit):
https://twitter.com/ononokomachi1/status/941557917265702913

 

[Aceon6]

Pardon if this is already linked upthread, but Charles Pierce of Sports Illustrated ripped USAG and the USOC a new one after the sentencing.
https://www.si.com/olympics/2018/01...g-usa-gymnastics-abuse-victims-michigan-state
Key quotes:
"In that courtroom, for the past few weeks, a remarkable pageant of crime and punishment, of grotesque sin and justified retribution, has been playing out. Larry Nassar’s victims have come to disclose his hidden sins. They have come to bring out into the open that which was concealed in cowardly shadow by a rogue’s gallery of coaches and bureaucrats, all of whom should be driven from polite society by howling mobs. It is not like anything I ever have seen."

Burn it all down. That is the calm and reasoned conclusion to which I have come as one horror story after another unspooled in the courtroom. Nobody employed in the upper echelons at USA Gymnastics, or at the United States Olympic Committee, or at Michigan State University should still have a job. If accessorial or conspiracy charges plausibly can be lodged against those people, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Those people should come out of civil courts wearing barrels. Their descendants should be answering motions in the 22nd Century. In fact, I can argue convincingly that none of those three institutions should continue to exist in its current form. USA Gymnastics and the USOC should lose their non-profit status forthwith. Michigan State should lose its status within the NCAA for at least five years. American gymnastics is no longer a sport. It’s a conspiracy of pedophiles and their enablers."

and he concludes with "They should carve Aly Raisman’s entire statement into the walls of the lobby of every athletic organization in the world. (If you think this kind of thing was limited to Larry Nassar, or even to the United States, I have some vacant churches all around the world on which I can get you some great deals.) They should put her in charge of the Olympics. Larry Nassar should live in a cage long enough to hear about every great thing that Aly Raisman ever does. He will look through bars forever. He should have some company there, too."

 

[Karina1974]

NPR just reported the entire USAG BoD is going to resign.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

Here is the link to the FOX interview with Dominique Moceanu referenced above by rudi.
*** Dominique Moceanu Describes 'Culture of Abuse' at USA Gymnastics :
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/01/...-gymnastics-abuse-scandal-martha-bela-karolyi

MacCallum asked Moceanu if she believes the Karolyis knew about the heinous crimes Nassar was committing at their training facility.

"The Karolyis knew how much we ate, they knew how much we weighed, they knew when we trained, they knew who they wanted on the World and Olympic teams," Moceanu said. "To say that they didn't know absolutely anything is questionable. ... And it needs to be investigated."

Also here is an article about the gymnastics center Moceanu is opening in Cleveland.
*** Olympian Dominique Moceanu to open gymnastics center in Medina :
http://www.chroniclet.com/news/2018...eanu-to-open-gymnastics-center-in-Medina.html

The facility will focus on instructional gymnastics, as well as the healthy development of children. There will be no competitive gymnastic teams at the facility.

Moceanu said she’ll hire a full-time staff of about 10. She’s screening more than 100 resumes with prospective employees.

“This was something that was meant to happen,” she said. “I feel in my heart the need to help children enjoy the sport of gymnastics.”

The gym’s motto is “peace, strength and balance.”

 

[rhapsody]

Not sure what she said, but this thread is where I read the concerns about her (need to scroll down a bit):
https://twitter.com/ononokomachi1/status/941557917265702913

Lauren Hopkins (where the info about said athlete rep came from) is pretty clued in on these issues. She only parses out insider information once she hears it from multiple sources to corroborate the "rumors" (which always turn out to be true); she also does it to ensure that the leak can be traced to multiple sources so people can't blame her for breaking insider bits (ahem, Dave Lease this is how you should behave if you want to be taken seriously as a sports journalist). She posted more about it on her blog but she always deletes those posts after a while. I found it reblogged somewhere else though:

Ivana Hong. I really liked her transitioning into a coaching role but when athletes at Stanford started speaking up about abusive training conditions and the coaching culture in general last season, not only did Kristen Smyth come up, but Ivana did as well, with pretty much every athlete saying she was a “mini Kristen” and so she faced an investigation for her behavior just like Kristen did. But instead of going through it, because she knew it would result in her dismissal, she just quietly left the program and no one was the wiser. So to go from being ousted at a collegiate program because of how she treated athletes to the number one choice for the athlete’s council for elite WAG is kind of jarring. I’ll give USAG the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn’t know because not many people did and she’s obviously trying to keep it quiet, but also…yikes. She’s expected to be a person that athletes can turn to and the person who speaks for the athletes, but if she had grown ass women fearing her at Stanford I don’t see how girls as young as 12 and 13 will feel comfortable going to her. Hopefully she has changed her ways and will be a person people can trust, and since she won’t be in a position of power necessarily, it’s different than actually coaching…but yeah, of pretty much any former elite who has retired within the past couple of quads, she is probably the worst choice based on her history at Stanford.

 

[clairecloutier]

Aly Raisman wrote a great letter to the USOC, outlining the further actions they need to take to address the scandal. For some reason I can't link to her tweet. But you can see it at her Twitter account: @Aly_Raisman

There's an editorial in the Washington Post today arguing that the whole culture of USAG needs rethinking:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-card-a:homepage/story&utm_term=.a172d6ac2b8b

The writer argues that the problems with USAG go way beyond Nassar. He cites an in-depth article from back in 2004 that extensively details the questionable practices of top gymnastics coaches, as well as the Karolyis:

Inside USA Gymnastics' Culture of Abuse
https://www.pe.com/2018/01/23/out-of-balance-a-look-inside-usa-gymnastics-culture-of-abuse/

This article is shocking to read even now, citing statistics that women's gymnastics in the U.S. has had a similar or higher injury rate than the NFL. But you know, the evidence of this was always right there, pretty much in plain view ....

 

[Erin]

Thanks @rhapsody for posting Lauren's full post. I hadn't seen it. I sometimes take what she says with a grain of salt, but I was inclined to give this one some credence, as there has been a lot of talk about problems with the atmosphere at Stanford and it didn't just seem to be Smyth. It was disappointing to hear because I always liked Hong's gymnastics.

@clairecloutier, I agree that Aly's letter was great. I appreciated that it was respectful about what has been done to date and raised a critical issue - making sure that the new board members weren't involved in prior problems. Which can't be known without a full and immediate, independent investigation.
https://twitter.com/aly_raisman/status/957054828345221120

 

[Frau Muller]

Where are the Karolys now?

Weren’t some Michigan-area figure skaters also molested by Nassar? This article mentions at least one, Nicole Soos:

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/larry-nas...ful-words-032805161--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[Aceon6]

I would be fairly confident that Nassar molested most of the level 9s, 10s and elites in Michigan, plus most of the members of the MSU teams and developmental teams. During the 20/20 segment last night, the 19 Sister Survivors all raised their hands when asked if they thought Nassar's victims may run into the thousands.