Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman delivered a powerful victim impact statement on Friday during the final day of former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse sentencing hearing.
The 23-year-old athlete initially announced that she would not attend the hearing, but showed up to Michigan’s Ingham County Circuit Courtroom, embraced fellow gymnast Jordyn Wieber (who revealed she too was Nassar victim during Friday’s hearing) and directly addressed Nassar, whom she accused of molesting her on several occasions.
“The tables have turned, Larry. We are here. We have our voices, and we are not going anywhere. And now, Larry, It’s your turn to listen to me,” Raisman said, according to WCVB.
“You never healed me. You took advantage of our passions and our dreams. Imagine feeling like you have no power, and no voice. Well you know what Larry, I have my power and my voice, and I will use them.”
Jae C. Hong/AP
More than 130 women and girls have accused Nassar, 54, of assault, including gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas. Nassar pleaded guilty in November to several counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Raisman spoke out about the alleged abuse earlier this year during an emotional interview with 60 Minutes. She alleged that Nassar often touched her inappropriately and made her feel uncomfortable. She has since used her platform to speak out against sexual abuse and call for Nassar to be held responsible for the molestation.
In November, Raisman spoke to PEOPLE about how difficult it was to speak out.
“I was just so scared and nervous about what people were going to think,” said Raisman, who details the abuse in the pages of her aptly titled autobiography Fierce, which was released on Nov. 14. “I was a textbook victim, brainwashed to believe I was fine.”
She reiterated those sentiments in court Friday.
“Larry, you abused the power and trust I and so many others placed in you, and I am not sure I will ever come to terms with how horribly you manipulated and violated me,” Raisman said in her statement in court.
“I am here to face you, Larry, so you can see I’ve regained my strength, that I’m no longer a victim. I’m a survivor. I am no longer that little girl you met in Australia, where you first began grooming and manipulating.”
Salute to @Aly_Raisman! 🙌 You are a leader of your generation, of our country, of our world. You are unstoppable. We will follow in your footsteps to a much better future. — Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) January 19, 2018
Aly Raisman’s statement is a must-watch. She not only faces her abuser with strength and poise, but also demands accountability from USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee, and every adult who ignored and shamed numerous victims over the years. THIS is what change looks like 🙌 https://t.co/PPpEOKs0Du — Molly McGrath (@MollyAMcGrath) January 19, 2018
Not sure what Aly Raisman is going to do with the rest of her life but fairly confident those gold medals she won will be the least of her accomplishments. Her statement was incredible. — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) January 19, 2018
She concluded: “My dream is that one day everyone will know what the words, ‘me too,’ signify, but they will be educated and able to protect themselves from predators like Larry so that they will never, ever, ever have to say the words, ‘me too.’ “
Raisman’s statement quickly drew praise online, with social media users calling her address “incredible” and describing Raisman as a “leader” of her generation.
USA Gymnastics Announces Plan to Move National Team Training Center
Nassar was fired by USA Gymnastics in 2015 after working with the organization since 1986 — he had been its national medical coordinator since 1996, the New York Times reported. He was fired from Michigan State in 2016.
USA Gymnastics officials announced on Thursday that the organization has cut ties with the famous Karolyi Camp, where several athletes have said they were sexually abused by Nassar.
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman — a member of the “Fierce Five” team that won gold in 2012 — stared down Larry Nassar at his sentencing hearing in Michigan on Friday, telling him he “should have been locked up a long, long time ago.”
“I am here to face you, Larry, so you can see I’ve regained my strength, that I’m no longer a victim. I am a survivor,” she told the disgraced doctor in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Raisman ripped into Nassar for telling Judge Rosemarie Aquilina on Thursday that he couldn’t “mentally” handle hearing testimony from the dozens of women he sexually abused under the guise of treatment.
“You are pathetic to think that anybody would have any sympathy for you. You think this is hard for you? Imagine how all of us feel,” said Raisman, who was molested by Nassar during the London 2012 Olympics.
“You are so sick, I can’t even comprehend how angry I feel when I think of you,” she added.
Raisman delivered a sharp rebuke of USA Gymnastics, an organization that she said is “rotting from the inside.” Many have accused USA Gymnastics of being slow to respond to allegations against Nassar.
“To believe in the future of gymnastics is to believe in change,” she said.
The Olympic athlete accused USA Gymnastics of being “quick to capitalize” on her success but failing to reach out when she came forward with accusations against Nassar.
“For this sport to go on, we have to demand real change and fight for it,” she said, calling for an independent investigation into “what went wrong.”
Nassar, who has pleaded guilty to molesting seven girls, faces up to 125 years behind bars.
Nearly 100 women have stared him down in Michigan court this week, sharing their harrowing stories of sexual abuse.
“Your honor, I ask you to give Larry the strongest possible sentence,” Raisman said. “Abusers, your time is up. The survivors are here standing tall, and we are not going anywhere.”
Olympic gold medalist gymnast Aly Raisman delivered a 13-minute victim impact statement today in front of Ingham County Circuit Judge Judge Rosemarie Aquilina and Larry Nassar himself, in which she excoriated not just Nassar for his sexual abuses against herself and nearly 150 other athletes, but also USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee for what she sees as a systematic enabling of his crimes and an inadequate response to the devastating scandal on their doorstep.
Raisman reached out to prosecutors last week asking to testify, and she did so with such a deliberate and severe tone, shying away from none of the injustices she and her fellow athletes have endured.
Early in her statement, she appeared to look at Nassar himself, and said coldly: “You do realize now the women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time are now a force, and you are nothing.”
She responded to a statement Nassar provided yesterday, telling the judge he was unsure if he had the mental stamina to listen to so many victim impact statements. Raisman did not mince words, telling her abuser that he is “pathetic to think that anyone would have sympathy for you.” She told Nassar that she and the other athletes he abused “will use our voices to make sure you get what you deserve: A life of suffering spent replaying the words delivered by this powerful army of survivors.”
But Raisman’s most focused contempt came for USA Gymnastics and the USOC, and how they allowed the state of the sport to be uniquely influenced by Nassar. Both institutions received complaints about his abuses spanning back decades.
She told Nassar that she “will not rest until every last trace of your influence on this sport has been destroyed like the cancer it is,” and, in addressing new USA Gymastics CEO Kerry Perry, said she had “taken on an organization that I feel is rotting from the inside.”
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“This may not be what you thought you were getting into,” she said, “but you will be judged by how you deal with it.”
Raisman is clearly fed up with the USAG’s toothless statements and responses to the growing crisis within its sport, saying that “continuing to issue statements of empty promises thinking that will pacify us will no longer work.”
She begged USA Gymnastics and the USOC to conduct full and independent investigations into how Nassar’s abuses were allowed to go on for so long, and clean out any and all people who failed to protect her and her fellow gymnasts.
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“I have represented the USA in two Olympics and have done so successfully,” Raisman said. “And both USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee have been very quick to capitalize and celebrate my success, but did they reach out when I came forward?
“No,” and then she paused.
For this sport to go on, we need to demand real change, and we need to be willing to fight for it. It’s clear now that if we leave it up to these organizations, history is likely to repeat itself. Now is the time to acknowledge that the very person who sits before us now—who perpetrated the worst epidemic of sexual abuse in the history of sports, who is going to be locked up for a long, long time—this monster was also the architect of policies and procedures that are supposed to protect athletes from sexual abuse for both USA Gymnastics and the USOC.
Raisman asked the judge to sentence Nassar to the strongest possible allowed by law to send a message to abusers that their time is up. She added: “Please, your honor, stress the need to investigate how this happened so we can hold accountable those who enabled Larry Nassar.”
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At the end of her statement, Aquilina looked at Raisman and said: “I’m an adult, and I’m listening, and I’m sorry it took this long.”
