- ABC News
- April 20, 2018
They were little girls with dreams of Olympic gold when they started in gymnastics. Now they are women with lifelong injuries, suffocating anxiety and debilitating eating disorders. They are the other victims of USA Gymnastics. Thirteen former U.S. gymnasts and three coaches interviewed by The Associated Press described a win-at-all-costs culture rife with verbal and emotional abuse in which girls were forced to train on broken bones and other injuries. That culture was tacitly endorsed by the sport's governing body and institutionalized by Bela and Marta Karolyi, the husband-and-wife duo who coached America's top female gymnasts for three decades. The gymnasts agreed to speak to the AP, some for the first time, after the recent courtroom revelations about USA Gymnastics' former team doctor Larry Nassar, who recently was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting young athletes for years under the guise of medical treatment. The Karolyis' oppressive style created a...