Former US Gymnast McKayla Maroney Details Shocking Larry Nassar Sex Abuse, Slams USA Gymnastics Team For Not Protecting Young Girls
Not holding back. Former US Olympics gymnast McKayla Maroney has come forward to share disturbing details about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of convicted sports doctor Larry Nassar.
The gold medalist — one of the hundreds of victims, including Simone Biles, who was sexually abused by the convicted sex offender — took to social media to open up about her traumatizing experience as part of the USA Gymnastics team.
She slammed the USA Gymnastics team and Olympic & Paralympic Committee (a.k.a Team USA) for failing to help the young victims and turning a blind eye to anything that would interfere with winning the Games, including athletes' injuries.
On Sunday, August 1, Maroney shared a series of Twitter and Instagram posts, revealing she was starved, banned from speaking to her parents and told to keep quiet when she tried to speak up about Nassar's abuse.
“When I was under ‘your care’ in Tokyo competing for Team USA at 15, and my parents weren’t allowed to stay in my hotel, or see me in person… When I was all alone, naked, with Larry Nassar on top of me for 50min balling. Who’s fault is that?" the now-25-year-old questioned on Twitter.
Though the athletes were under USAG's care, the team refused to own up to any mistakes made on their end. “My parents had to sign a waiver before me leaving for competitions or camps stating that I’m now in USAG’s care, & they’ll protect me. If they don’t sign it we can’t compete,” she explained, noting the USAG said "they’re not responsible for the abuse that happened. Well then who is?" Maroney asked.
"I was a minor in Tokyo & in London," the brunette beauty stated. "We were not allowed to see our parents until after competitions, they were not allowed to stay at our hotel, or speak to us in person."
While insisting the young women would get in trouble for talking to their parents — because they were seen as a "distraction" — Maroney explained: “My mom would send me packages of food to my hotel in Tokyo, because I was starving."
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When Maroney tried to tell an older teammate who she looked up to about the abuse she was enduring from the former osteopathic physician for USA Gymnastics, the unnamed girl told her to “‘Shut the f**k up, and don’t ever say anything like that about Larry Nassar again,'” the athlete recalled.
Taking her fellow teammate's instructions, Maroney chose to keep quiet. "That scared the hell out of me, so I listened, and didn’t say anything for a long time. I just suppressed it until it came up again in 2015," she explained, referring to the year athletes first began complaining about Nassar's abuse.
Maroney then recalled the 2012 London Olympics where she was forced to compete, despite having a broken foot — which Nassar claimed wasn't broken — broken nose, fractured shins and bad concussion.
On Maroney's Instagram Story, she explained she suffered the foot injury because her then-coach, Márta Károly, had the girls train as soon as they touched down in England.
According to Maroney, Károlyi instructed her to complete three balance beam routines despite the fact that she was "jet-legged" and not even competing in the event. “And that’s when I broke my foot because I was dizzy as hell,” Maroney told her 1.4 million followers.
"I felt terrible," she recounted of the incident. "I looked at my coach before the beam routine like, ‘Really? You’re going to make me get on this thing right now? I feel like s**t.'" Apart from Károlyi yelling at her over the injury, she insisted her toe was not broken, even though there was a report that stated it was, according to the Insider.
Meanwhile, Maroney claimed Nassar knew about her broken foot — given that he “was the one who helped with the X-rays and passed along the information," she insisted — but likely told the former coach her foot was OK.
Thankfully, Maroney — who was part of the “Fierce Five” in 2012 — underwent what she described as a "miracle surgery" after the Games. Nevertheless, she concluded that being forced to compete “literally risk[ed] the rest of [her] gymnastics career.”
Nassar is currently serving a 175-year prison sentence following his 2018 conviction on charges of child pornography and sexual assault of minors. In 2017, he also pleased guilty to child pornography and tampering with evidence charges.
