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

[skatfan]

I t

Good. Engler was never the right person for this and everyone but the Board of Trustees knew it from the start: students, faculty, staff, alumni, reporters, etc. Hopefully the new interim president will use his connections to professors and students alike to represent what the university is actually about, not what the elected BoT wants.

I thought that the State basically told the Trustees that if they didn't pick him that their funding would be drastically cut.

 

[Willin]

@skatfan I heard that as well, and despite it being the only rational explanation for picking such a widely hated candidate for the job I've never seen confirmation. Also, the state should be ashamed of itself if that's true. They shouldn't be playing political bingo with institutes of higher education. California already does too much of that and its really hurting their students.

 

[nimi]

HuffPo published an article called The Hearing That Forced The World To Listen To Larry Nassar’s Survivors a couple of days ago (i.e. just before Engler getting ousted made the news). It is the first installment of a seven-part series called “One Year Later: Larry Nassar And The Women Who Made Us Listen,” commemorating those seven days of victim impact statements. So basically, a kind of a recap that centers the survivors' voices.

Speaking of MSU, this is how a survivor called Jessica Smith (quoted in the article) describes their modus operandi:

“I teach students as young as 2, and in my experience, 2-year-olds are better at taking responsibility than Michigan State University,” she said.

ETA: In USAG news, earlier this month Scott M. Reid reported how USA Gymnastics has not paid U.S. men’s national team members this month even though at the same time USAG "is asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court to allow it to pay out $88,000 in employee holiday bonuses". Quelle surprise.

One of the employees who would receive a bonus is national teams manager Amy White.
(...)
“A lot of the decisions they’ve made in recent times don’t make sense,” Williams said referring to USA Gymnastics. “Like not paying the athletes but giving a bonus to this person who removed documents from the ranch.

 

[barbk]

Today's HuffPo on the Nasser case is a feature about reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski, who broke the story. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...-larry-nassar_us_5c3d4178e4b0e0baf54063b1?oke

Back in December, she won the Nieman Fellows 2019 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.

I wonder if Marisa is related to Tonia Kwiatkowski, a high ranking US ladies skater from the 90s?

 

[Artistic Skaters]

*** John Geddert investigation still open a year after it began in wake of Nassar sentencings :
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com...ion-year-after-larry-nassar-cases/2605297002/

The Eaton County Sheriff's Office said in February 2018 that it was actively investigating complaints against Geddert, who was also harshly criticized by several women and girls who gave victim-impact statements.

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, the Sheriff's Office sent "three or four 4-inch-thick binders" to prosecutors, Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney Doug Lloyd said last week.

Lloyd added that he and an assistant prosecutor have been reviewing the reports and requested additional investigation by the Sheriff's Office, but that there was no timeline for a decision on whether to charge Geddert.

Geddert and Twistars, the gymnastics facility he had previously owned, are being sued by hundreds of women and girls who say Nassar sexually assaulted them.

 

[Eeyora1]

Today's HuffPo on the Nasser case is a feature about reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski, who broke the story. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...-larry-nassar_us_5c3d4178e4b0e0baf54063b1?oke

Back in December, she won the Nieman Fellows 2019 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.

I wonder if Marisa is related to Tonia Kwiatkowski, a high ranking US ladies skater from the 90s?

I was wondering the exact samething..

 

[Artistic Skaters]

*** Questions Left Unanswered For USA Gymnastics Sexual Abuse Survivors :
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/...red-for-usa-gymnastics-sexual-abuse-survivors

Creditors owed money by USA Gymnastics were given a chance Thursday to question one of the organization’s officials.

Four former gymnasts, who have come out publicly about their sexual abuse, questioned USAG Chief Financial Officer Scott Shollenbarger in testimony that lasted about three hours. Yet walking out of the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, the women were unsatisfied with the lack of answers to their questions.

“Today was a big day full of ‘I don’t knows.’ And that’s not why we left our children at home, and left our families, and took days off of work and lost wages to be here,” says Sarah Klein.

USAG is scheduled to have a bankruptcy court hearing later this month. USAG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, as a means of resolving dozens of lawsuits filed by about 350 plaintiffs.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

*** Nassar Accusers Sue U.S Olympic Committee For Failing To Prevent Sexual Abuse :
https://www.cpr.org/news/story/nass...committee-for-failing-to-prevent-sexual-abuse

The suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, accuses the USOC of gross negligence, fraud, and other violations:

"The USOC, its Officers and Directors and their NGBs (National Governing Bodies) have known for decades that sexual predators and pedophiles are attracted to the occupation of coaching young athletes yet failed to take effective action to detect and eliminate from Olympic sports those adults who posed an unreasonable risk of harm to the young athletes they were duty bound to protect."​

In addition to confronting the overall organization, former CEO Scott Blackmun, several former USOC officers and 19 current and former board members are named. Unspecified compensatory and punitive damages are sought.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

*** In wake of Nassar scandal, gymnastics aid fund expanding focus to education and prevention :
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...nastics-aid-fund-focus-prevention/3200543002/

A new nonprofit created in the wake of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal has started providing free, confidential counseling to gymnasts who’ve experience abuse in the sport.

The Athlete Assistance Fund and National Gymnastics Foundation are separate nonprofits.

“We are not affiliated in any way with USA Gymnastics,” Ferriola said.

Here’s the rub for skeptics. The fund's creation was announced last year by USA Gymnastics and the foundation. The foundation’s purposes, according to articles of incorporation on file with the Indiana Secretary of State, “are exclusively to benefit, perform the functions of and to carry out the educational and charitable purposes” of USA Gymnastics. And Ferriola also is president of the foundation’s board of directors, which historically has been nominated by USA Gymnastics.

 

[Aceon6]

Geez Louise. They still don’t get it. For the same money, they should have funded existing, fully independent programs.

 

[Sylvia]

HBO documentary on Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal tells hard truths: https://www.freep.com/story/enterta...-sex-abuse-scandal-usa-gymnastics/3576123002/

"How much is a little girl worth?" asked former gymnast Rachael Denhollander during the victim impact statements at Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing — seven days of raw, devastating, ultimately empowering testimony from more than 150 women who faced their abuser for the world to see.
That moment captures the message of "At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal," airing on HBO at 8 p.m. Friday. The documentary delves into a system that failed to protect young athletes from sexual abuse by a predator who used his medical credentials as a cover for his crimes.
Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr started working on the movie in July 2017, about six months before Nassar, a former Michigan State University doctor and USA Gymnastics team physician, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. She was still poring over the finishing touches days before its Thursday debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.

HBO trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eaX405ph0g

 

[Artistic Skaters]

*** Beyond Larry Nassar: hundreds of athletes are fighting USA Gymnastics in court over abuse :
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/30/18287522/larry-nassar-usa-gymnastics-bankruptcy-usag-assault

Shenea Booth says she was 15 years old when her gymnastics coach started abusing her. She had moved in with the coach, David Reiakvam, then in his early 30s, to facilitate her training, she told Vox. But in 2001, she says, he began molesting her.

“David Reiakvam would molest me in the car while driving to and from gym practice,” Booth wrote in a recent legal complaint, “and would do so in the presence of his toddler son.”

“I was sexually abused by David Reiakvam on a minimum of 200 separate occasions,” she wrote.

Booth filed paperwork to join the USA Gymnastics bankruptcy case in March. In a proof of claim document filed as part of the case, she says USA Gymnastics officials were aware of reports of sexual abuse by Reiakvam as early as 2002 but allowed him to continue coaching until 2010. She also says even after 2010, when the sexual abuse case against Reiakvam was making its way through the justice system, he was still allowed to attend gymnastics competitions.

 

[MacMadame]

A summary of the Larry Nassar case along with some insight into how he was able to get away with it for so long:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/...03&nl=in-her-words&nlid=8948739720190503&te=1

 

[just tuned in]

Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company has filed a lawsuit against the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), claiming its leaders falsely said they had received no sexual assault claims when in fact the problem had been prevalent for decades and included a large number of victims.

https://www.insidethegames.biz/arti...mittee-lied-about-sexual-assaults-of-athletes

 

[viennese]

Here's a BBC radio interview with Rachel Haines, who has just written a book called Abused: Surviving Sexual Assault and a Toxic Gymnastics Culture. Haines trained at Geddart's Twistars and won a scholarship to Univ. Minnesota.


She does a good job of explaining how Nassar won the trust of athletes and their families.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

Christine Brennan wrote a column last week about Li Li Leung's unfortunate choice of words in the interview on the Today show.

*** Opinion: New USA Gymnastics president makes big mistake :
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ent-li-li-leung-makes-big-mistake/3564624002/

“I was seen by Larry Nassar myself, but I was not abused by him, and the reason why I wasn’t abused by him is because my coach was by my side when he saw me. I was seen by him in a public setting and so I understand what the setting needs to be like in order to ensure safety for our athletes.”

Who among us doesn’t remember hearing the chilling detail from the victim impact statements in January 2018 that Nassar sexually abused one young woman after another while another adult, often a parent, was in the room, by her side?

How is it possible that the new president of USA Gymnastics didn’t register the importance of that detail within the telling of her own story? How is it that she so confidently told her lucky Nassar story with no apparent thought to how that story would sound to his survivors and anyone else paying attention in our post-Nassar world?

Asked about the specifics of her time spent with Nassar, Leung said she and her coach met with him for “several minutes” when he was the doctor on duty at the 1990 U.S. Classic in Saginaw, Michigan. He examined her knee in public view on the competition floor and cleared her to compete. She was 16 at the time.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

A recent suspension by SafeSport --

*** 40-year Parkettes gymnastics coach suspended over misconduct allegation :
https://www.mcall.com/news/breaking...0190607-jhis26otbrattjivu2dcglu3yi-story.html

Parkettes Gymnastics Club coach John Holman has been suspended by the sport’s U.S. governing body until a hearing on a misconduct allegation, according to information on USA Gymnastics’ website.


Holman, who has coached at the renowned Allentown gymnastics training center for about 40 years, is not permitted to have “unsupervised contact with minors,” according to USA Gymnastics list of suspended and restricted members. That means Holman may not be in the presence of minors at a USA Gymnastics member gym or event sanctioned by the group without another trained adult present, according to the website.

Holman, 66, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment that were left at the Parkettes center on Martin Luther King Drive and his home in Salisbury Township. Holman told the Orange County Register in California this week he did not commit sexual misconduct, and that he was unaware of the allegations against him or the terms of the suspension

​

 

[judiz]

Not sure where to put this and I apologize if it was already posted

BEHIND THE WALLS: Sexual abuse in American men’s gymnastics

U.S. champion Chris Riegel alleges he was sexually abused by his coach Larry Moyer, abuse he said top U.S. gymnastics officials ignored

www.ocregister.com

 

[annie720]

Not sure where to put this and I apologize if it was already posted

BEHIND THE WALLS: Sexual abuse in American men’s gymnastics

U.S. champion Chris Riegel alleges he was sexually abused by his coach Larry Moyer, abuse he said top U.S. gymnastics officials ignored

www.ocregister.com

Wow. A lot of detail in that article. I remember Chris well.

 

[pollyanna]

Horrible story. This poor woman - she's more traumatized by Geddert's abuse than Nassar's, believe it nor not.

An Early Survivor of Larry Nassar’s Abuse Speaks Out For the First Time

 

[Rob]

Devastating.

 

[AxelAnnie]

Anyone watch the documentary about Nasser? Eye opening

 

[clairecloutier]

Horrible story. This poor woman - she's more traumatized by Geddert's abuse than Nassar's, believe it nor not.

An Early Survivor of Larry Nassar’s Abuse Speaks Out For the First Time

Very shocking article. Kiira Korpi shared it on Twitter--and said something about the cultures of gymnastics and skating being similar.

 

[clairecloutier]

Yet another report of abusive coaching in U.S. women's gymnastics. This time, it's former U.S. gymnast Anna Li and her mother, former Chinese gymnast, Jiani Wu.

Mistreatment of young gymnasts alleged against Anna Li, USA Gymnastics’ new athletes’ rep, and her mom

Li and her mother Jiani Wu, also a coach in the Legacy Elite Gymnastics gym in Illinois, are routinely emotionally and, in the case of Wu, physically abusive toward young female gymnasts, Legacy gy…

www.ocregister.com

It's interesting that Li and Wu are accused of similar types of psychological and physical abuse as John Geddert was recently by Sara Teristi (although, at least, not the truly disgusting sexually-tinged abuse from Geddert). It makes you wonder just how much that culture has pervaded U.S. ladies' gymnastics.

I guess this scandal is coming out because Anna Li was recently added to the Athletes' Council for USAG, and people are upset.

 

[VGThuy]

Reading that was appalling. And complaints were coming in since at least 2014. What a bone-headed decision by USAG, but what else is new. Did Li not learn anything from her time with Miss Val at UCLA? I guess parenting runs too deeply in people's blood. I'm sure Wu thought her actions of emotional and physical abuse were normal since she probably faced the same as a gymnast in China, but nothing excuses what both she and Li are accused of doing to these young gymnasts. What also got me was how many parents actually complained at the time and reported them for years when we know parents usually are quiet about such things and justify it thinking about that gold medal at the end. Absolutely disgusting behavior.

 

[Rob]

That is horrible. The body shaming has been status quo in sports and dance and is only changing now. The rest of it is completely over the top. A coach can speak harshly that the athlete is not listening or is not taking the correction and that should be plenty of negative criticism and motivation. But “you suck, you don’t belong here.” No. If you don’t want to coach them because you think they can’t achieve and might hurt themselves, then tell the parents that they aren’t ready for the next level. But screaming these insults and telling a child to go against a doctors orders, no. And you don’t blame a child for an injury, these are accidents.

 

[canbelto]

What's depressing is that Anna Li is young, and an acclaimed athlete at UCLA. NCAA gymnastics is often cited as an excellent system where gymnasts who faltered and were burned out by elite training thrived (Katelyn Ohashi for instance). But the fact that she seemed to have become as abusive as her parents in training methods makes me think that NCAA gymnastics might have the same abuse/body shaming issues.

 

[Coco]

It can be hard to unring those bells. Anna was known for having motivational issues at UCLA, and fitness issues, too. This makes sense but it is very sad.

 

[Aceon6]

I don’t know how to link this but Olympic Channel just posted a snippet of an interview with Simone Biles on their Facebook feed. Heartbreaking! “You had ONE job!” She says she’s still anxious about having doctors or physios touch her.

 

[AxelAnnie]

I don’t know how to link this but Olympic Channel just posted a snippet of an interview with Simone Biles on their Facebook feed. Heartbreaking! “You had ONE job!” She says she’s still anxious about having doctors or physios touch her.

Watch the movie. It is raw and informative. The abuse is insidious. Parents were even in the room with the girls when Nassar "adjusted" a hip through the vagina.