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On Thursday, The Indianapolis Star released a bombshell report detailing how USA Gymnastics covered for their former physician, Larry Nassar, who is currently in prison and set to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Nassar, 54, is the disgraced former physician for both USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. He has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 330 individuals, of whom many are female gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment for roughly two decades.
He was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison this past December on three child pornography charges before receiving two state prison sentences, with one having been issued in January and the other having been issued in February.
In January, he was sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in state prison on seven sexual assault charges, and in February, he was sentenced to between an additional 40 and 125 years in state prison on three sexual assault charges.
He is currently serving his 60-year federal prison sentence at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona.
In the report by The Indianapolis Star, it was revealed that when Nassar was under investigation for child sexual abuse in 2015, he was forced to miss several pre-Olympic gymnastics events.
However, false excuses were provided in regard to why he was missing these events, thus keeping his predatory behavior under the radar and preventing everyone, including Michigan State University, from knowing what was really going on.
But hearing that USA Gymnastics had tried to cover something up in regard to this scandal was not very surprising. It seems like finding out that they have twisted the truth has become a trend.
USA Gymnastics had also previously stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had asked them to remain silent during the investigation.
However, this may also have been an attempt to cover up what was really going on, as several instances that were previously revealed suggest that they had attempted to keep it silent even before the FBI were involved.
After two-time Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and Oklahoma University gymnast Maggie Nichols were heard talking about Nassar on June 17, 2015, USA Gymnastics officials were informed.
Instead of going to the FBI, they hired a private investigator named Fran Sepler, who interviewed Raisman and encouraged her to keep quiet by telling her that "there are risks in sharing information at this point."
Former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny also texted Raisman before USA Gymnastics got the FBI involved and told her that she needed to keep everything "quiet and confidential". Gina Nichols, Maggie's mother, was also told not to say anything about what was going on.
Nearly six weeks after USA Gymnastics were informed of "athlete concerns" about Nassar, they finally got the FBI involved. Even if the FBI did tell USA Gymnastics remain silent, that certainly was not the reason why Sepler and Penny told Raisman, Nichols and others to be remain silent since they did so before they got the FBI involved.
USA Gymnastics also denied trying to silence 2012 Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney from discussing the sexual assault that she was forced to endure at the hands of Nassar by using a non-disclosure agreement and paying her $1.25 million to agree to it.
However, after it was pretty clear that they did, in fact, try (and fail) to silence her, that story then turned into USA Gymnastics denying the use of non-disclosure agreements in all cases except that of Maroney. That story proceeded to be challenged when two settlements between them and two gymnasts said otherwise.
Then in Dateline NBC's hourlong special called "Silent No More", which aired on Sunday, April 22 and pertained to the Nassar scandal, Raisman revealed that USA Gymnastics also offered her a settlement with confidentiality in it.
She refused it knowing that she wanted to talk about what happened to her, and she has certainly been very outspoken against Nassar and his protectors, defenders and enablers, including USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, since revealing this past November that Nassar had sexually assaulted her.
At the end of the day, finding out that USA Gymnastics twisted the truth in yet another situation regarding the Nassar scandal is not really surprising. In fact, it has become a trend.
