During former Team USA Gymnastics and MSU doctor Larry Nassar’s sentencing phase, Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney revealed in her victim-impact statement that she thought she was going to die while enduring years of sexual abuse. All told, Nassar amassed hundreds of victims, who he molested under the guise of “treatments,” and Maroney, who has laid relatively low until now, has spoken with NBC News’ Samantha Guthrie for this Sunday’s upcoming Dateline episode. In the above preview clip, Maroney reveals that Nassar molested her “every time” she saw him. She said the pattern began the first day she met him, and that the abuse occurred “hundreds” of times.
Maroney also revealed more about how Nassar groomed her, a process that began at age 13, by convincing her that no one really understood what Olympic athletes are going through and that they’d have to keep his treatments a secret. Her explanation is chilling to behold:
“He said that nobody would understand this and the sacrifice that it takes to get to the Olympics. So you can’t tell people this … I actually was like, ‘That makes sense. I don’t want to tell anybody about this. I didn’t believe that they would understand.”
Indeed, Karolyi Ranch — otherwise known as the USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center — was ground central for Nassar’s grooming of his victims, and there, he got away with his largely unsupervised predatory behavior for years. Gymnast Mattie Larson previously revealed how she purposely injured herself to avoid returning to the ranch, all while Team USA and MSU officials behaved as if they were unaware. On Monday, Maroney blasted Team USA for “only caring about money” rather than the safety of its gymnasts, and her full Dateline interview will likely reveal even more.
(Via NBC News)