In some very troubling sporting news, Olympic medalist McKayla Maroney has taken to social media as part of the #MeToo movement and addressed her own personal incident of being sexually abused.
It’s a troubling story, one that no woman should ever have to go through. It takes a lot of courage to come forward with such truths, and we applaud the Olympic legend, who is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, for being strong and providing strength to others.
In a prepared statement McKayla shared, “Dr. Nassar told me that I was receiving ‘medically necessary treatment that he had been performing on patients for over 30 years,'” Maroney wrote. “It started when I was 13 years old, at one of my first National Team training camps, in Texas, and it didn’t end until I left the sport. It seemed whenever and wherever this man could find the chance, I was ‘treated.’
“It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver [medal, in London].”
“For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old,” She wrote on Twitter. “… He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night.”
Here’s McKayla’s original statement:
#MeToo pic.twitter.com/lYXaDTuOsS
— mckayla (@McKaylaMaroney) October 18, 2017
TMZ also has a report on the subject:
