(CNN) Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman said last week that she didn't know whether she would take the stand to deliver a victim impact statement at the sentencing of her abuser, former team doctor Larry Nassar, who has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexually assaulting and abusing young girls under the guise of providing medical treatment.
But Friday, Raisman followed the 70 others who had come before her and addressed Nassar directly.
Courtrooms see their fair share of drama, but Raisman's blistering speech deserves to be examined in detail, both as a searing takedown of the man who assaulted her and as a call to action to fix the broken system that allowed Nassar's prolific abuse to occur for so long. In fact, by the time Raisman finished her 14-minute statement, the court had erupted in cheers.
Raisman's 10 most powerful lines are below.
1. "Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing."
As Raisman said this, she raised her head high and looked Nassar square in the eyes, her expression conveying both utter fury and absolute dignity.
2. "I didn't think I would be here today. I was scared and nervous. It wasn't until I started watching the impact statements from the other brave survivors that I realized I, too, needed to be here."
Throughout her statement, she made sure to repeatedly emphasize that she is just one of many who were abused by Nassar, and she praised the more than 70 others who have also given impact statements to the court (in all, a total of 120 women are expected to speak about Nassar's abuse, according to prosecutors). Raisman is one of the most recognizable members of the US gymnastics team, but she never stops emphasizing that each woman's voice matters equally. They are, she said, "an army of survivors."
3. "Larry, you should have been locked up, a long, long time ago. The fact is, we have no idea how many people you victimized, or what was done or not done that allowed you to keep doing it, and to get away with it for so long."
Raisman also made sure to point out that many of Nassar's victims might never be known. Note the way in which she repeatedly directly addresses him, unflinchingly, by name.
4. "I am here to face you, Larry, so you can see I have regained my strength, that I am no longer a victim. I am a survivor."
This was the first and only time Raisman used the word "victim" in relation to her or anyone else. The semantics here speak for themselves.
5. "As for your letter yesterday, you are pathetic to think that anyone would have any sympathy for you. You think this is hard for you? Imagine how all of us feel."
Here, Raisman directly addressed a letter Nassar wrote -- parts of which were read to the court Thursday -- in which he asked to be excused from four days of victim impact statements as he could not "mentally" handle it.
6. "Treatments with you were mandatory. You took advantage of that. ... Lying on my stomach with you on my bed insisting that your inappropriate touch would help to heal my pain. The reality is you caused me a great deal of physical, mental and emotional pain. You never healed me. You took advantage of our passions and our dreams."
Consider the bravery it takes to recount these traumatizing details in front of a room of people, let alone while looking at the perpetrator of these crimes in the eye.
7. "You already know you're going away to a place where you won't be able to hurt anybody ever again. But I am here to tell you that I will not rest until every single last trace of your influence on this sport has been destroyed, like the cancer it is."
She made an important point here -- noting with disgust that Nassar had sat on advisory boards and committees that had designed policies on how to protect athletes from harm. She "cringed," she said, to think that his influence remains in gymnastics, and vowed to eliminate his input forever.
8. "I have represented the United States of America in two Olympics and have done so successfully. And both USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee have been very quick to capitalize and celebrate my success. But did they reach out when I came forward? No."
Raisman slammed the groups who she said had failed to protect her and others who endured Nassar's abuse. She also accused USA Gymnastics of "rotting from the inside."
9. "If we are to believe in change, we must first understand the problem and everything that contributed to it. Now is not the time for false reassurances. We need an independent investigation of exactly what happened, what went wrong and how it can be avoided for the future."
Raisman emphasized repeatedly that Nassar being sent to jail was not enough. She called on both USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee to investigate how her abuser's behavior was allowed to go on for so long. She pulled no punches with what she said was USA Gymnastics' repeated failings to acknowledge the problem, saying that even though Nassar's crimes have been revealed, they still had "the nerve to say the very same" things they've said all along.
10. "My dream is that one day everyone will know what the words #MeToo 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.'"
The courtroom burst into applause.
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.”
Olympian Aly Raisman addressed serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar in court Friday with a powerful statement, calling the former USA Gymnastics team doctor “pathetic” for complaining about the length of his sentencing hearing and “a monster” for abusing the trust of his young patients.
“Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing,” Raisman said. “The tables have turned, Larry. We are here and we are not going anywhere.”
Raisman joined more than 100 women who have shared victim impact statements during Nassar’s sentencing hearing in Lansing, Michigan, this week, two months after publicly identifying herself as one of the athletes he abused.
Nassar, who faces a sentence of at least 25 years for sexual abuse, delivered a six-page letter to the court on Thursday, saying it had become too difficult for him “mentally” to continue to listen to his victims.
“This isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” county Judge Rosemarie Aquilina responded. “There’s no truth in here. It’s delusional.”
Raisman referenced the letter in her statement. “You are pathetic to think any woman would have any sympathy for you,” she said. “You think this is hard for you? Imagine how any of us feels.”
Brendan McDermid / Reuters Aly Raisman appears in court Jan. 19, 2018, during the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar.
The star gymnast, who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, described how she felt “hearing a knock on the door” as “an innocent teenager in a foreign country” and finding Nassar.
“You made me uncomfortable and I thought you were weird, but I felt guilty because you were a doctor,” Raisman said. She added: “I wouldn’t allow myself to believe the problem was you.”
She said Nassar assured her that his touching, which she described as “inappropriate,” would be helpful, and that he “told on” young women who refused his treatment.
Nassar served as a team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University until his firing in 2016. More than 140 women have accused him of sexual abuse. He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in November.
Brendan McDermid / Reuters Aly Raisman, left, embraces Jordyn Wieber during the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar.
Raisman was joined on Friday by Jordyn Wieber, her teammate on the “Fierce Five” ― the name given to USA gymnasts at the 2012 Olympics. Other members of the Five, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney, also have accused Nassar of abuse. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has spoken out, too.
Wieber’s statement was the first time she spoke publicly about Nassar.
“I’m angry with myself for not recognizing the abuse and that’s something I’m struggling with today,” Wieber said. She explained how the doctor used “grooming techniques,” BuzzFeed noted, to make the young female athletes believe he was their friend.
“I thought that training for the Olympics would be hardest thing I would ever have to do. But the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is process that I am a victim of Larry Nassar,” Wieber said.
Raisman has spoken out repeatedly about Nassar. In her statement, she again slammed the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics ― which she declared to be “rotting from the inside.” Both groups, she said, were “very quick to capitalize on my success,” while failing to take action against Nassar and issuing “empty” statements.
“Talk is cheap,” Raisman said, calling for an independent investigation into how Nassar was allowed to continue working with young athletes over multiple decades.
Raisman asked the judge to sentence Nassar to the maximum to that he might have time “replaying the words delivered by this powerful army of survivors.”
