Jerry Sandusky of Penn State traumatized over two dozen victims. Bill Cosby faced accusations from sixty victims. Nearly one hundred women suffered from Harvey Weinstein’s actions. Disturbingly, the number of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse victims far exceed these three highly publicized cases combined.
Early Stages of Larry Nassar’s Sexual Abuse
Beginning in 1986, Nassar worked as an athletic trainer for USA Gymnastics, a governing body for the US Olympic Committee. While the first account of sexual abuse by Nassar is unclear, one of Nassar’s earliest victims indicated Nassar started to abuse her in 1988. At this time, Nassar was a medical student at Michigan State University (MSU) and frequently volunteered in gymnastics settings. Potentially Nassar’s first victim, Sara Teristi, was only fourteen when Nassar inappropriately touched her breasts and requested that Teristi undress during multiple medical exams when it was unnecessary for Sara to have to do so.
Often, Teristi would visit Nassar while training at Great Lakes Gymnastics for rib pain and issues with her tailbone due to repeated stress on it, neither requiring that Teristi be unclothed. Like most of Nassar’s victims, Teristi believed Nassar was doing his job and did not report his medical examinations at such a young age. However, she recalls how much discomfort the situations brought her. Further, Teristi’s coach, John Geddert, had witnessed Nassar’s behavior and did not report it. Unfortunately, this was merely the start of Nassar’s grossly inappropriate misconduct and abuse of his position of power.
USA Gymnastics
While it is possible USA Gymnastics was initially unaware of the early stages of Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct, it is unlikely. Regardless of USA Gymnastics’ knowledge of his conduct, in 1996, the organization promoted Nassar to the position of national medical coordinator. For nineteen years while holding this position, Nassar assaulted over 300 young women and one man. Nassar’s specific duties required him to provide expert level osteopathic medicine to Olympic athletes. Osteopathic medicine specifically focuses on treating the person wholly, rather than the symptoms. This form of medicine requires practitioners to utilize their hands to move a patient’s muscles and ligaments to improve mobility and pain management. Under the guise of his medical degree and notability as a doctor, Nassar’s actions over nearly two decades included penetration of victims with his bare hands, fondling his victims’ genital and chest areas, and secretly videotaping interactions.
In a letter penned by Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, Biles shares her painful experiences with Nassar as her team doctor. Biles writes that she feels “a bit broken,” and betrayed because many USA Gymnastics employees told her she could trust Nassar and even questioned if her “horrific experiences” were her own fault.
The sheer number of Nassar’s victims indicates that he did not limit his victims to those stars like Biles, Aly Raisman, or Gabby Douglas.
Despite Nassar’s long-standing position with USA Gymnastics, the organization took until June of 2015 to conduct an internal investigation and July of 2015 to contact the FBI.
Michigan State University
Alongside Nassar’s work with USA Gymnastics, he built his career working with MSU. In 1997, after completing his medical fellowship in sports medicine, Nassar started working as an assistant professor at MSU’s College of Human Medicine. While the majority of sexual abuse allegations come from gymnastics settings, many of Nassar’s victims were assaulted while he worked in his capacity at MSU. One student-athlete at MSU, Jessica Smith, felt that if she were an Olympian, or a football or basketball player, MSU would have taken the time to address Nassar’s actions against her. Another student-athlete, Tiffany Thomas Lopez, brought up Nassar’s inappropriate behavior towards her to three athletic trainers at MSU, all of whom dismissed her claims. Lopez said of one athletic trainer, “she made me feel like I was crazy”.
Outside investigations revealed that no less than two dozen MSU employees were made aware of Nassar’s misconduct on campus. Despite this, it was not until 2014 that MSU launched an internal Title IX investigation, during which Nassar was still allowed to work with students. As part of its findings, MSU concluded that a graduate’s claim against Nassar was unfounded and that she was unable to determine the “nuanced difference” between a medical examination and sexual assault. MSU did not share news of its internal investigation of Nassar with USA Gymnastics. MSU ultimately closed the investigation and did not fire Nassar until late 2016, when attention on Nassar’s USA Gymnastics conduct grew.
The Aftermath of the Larry Nassar Scandal
Years following Nassar’s federal arrest, victims recounted their traumatic experiences at Nassar’s trial, where he was ultimately sentenced to over 100 years in prison. Nassar’s victims sued MSU and USA Gymnastics in civil court under negligence theories for their failure to act upon Nassar’s behavior.
As part of a 2018 settlement, MSU agreed to pay $500 million to the victims and their families. $75 million of this was put into a trust for future claimants alleging sexual abuse by Nassar. In a promise to MSU victims and future students, MSU committed to “acting more thoughtfully…to create solutions for a safer university”. MSU further apologized for its slow response to the “enormity of [Nassar’s] offenses”.
During an ongoing mediation battle beginning in 2018, USA Gymnastics offered $215 million to Nassar’s sexual abuse victims. While details on the final settlement are unclear, if one has been made, many of the child sex abuse survivors, including Simone Biles, pushed back and insist that USA Gymnastics provider a greater solution and thorough investigation.
What is clear is that USA Gymnastics is facing immense pressure to settle as indicated by its bankruptcy filings and lawsuits against its insurance providers. Amidst efforts by law firms to decertify USA Gymnastics on behalf of Nassar’s victims, the governing body assures it remains devoted to settling each Nassar lawsuit and improving its practices in the future.