Aly Raisman graces cover of ESPN the Magazine’s ‘Heroes Issue’
The Needham native will also be honored at Wednesday's ESPYs.
Aly Raisman has a message on the newest cover of ESPN the Magazine: “We have to change the way our society views women.”
ESPN released the cover of its “Heroes Issue,” which features Raisman, Wednesday morning prior to the evening’s ESPY Awards, the network’s annual celebration of athletic achievement and sports-related performances from the previous year. Raisman will accept the 2018 Arthur Ashe Courage Award along with fellow athletes and survivors of sexual abuse committed by former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar.
Aly Raisman is on the cover of ESPN the Magazine’s “Heroes Issue.”
Tonight, she and her fellow sister survivors will accept the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYS. pic.twitter.com/W6v2LDqPB1
— ESPN (@espn) July 18, 2018
In the cover story posted on ESPN’s website, Raisman continued to speak out about Nassar’s abuse.
“There are so many people out there that are survivors, but there are few that have a voice,” the gymnast said. “I know that I’m one of the few that are being heard, so I just want to do right by people.”
In the story, ESPN senior writer Mina Kimes chronicled a moment at May’s United State of Women Summit during which Raisman spoke to Tiffany Thomas Lopez, 37, a former Michigan State softball player who first met Nassar in 1998 and was also abused by him.
“I was 4. Jordyn [Wieber] was 3,” Raisman said, referring to the ages that she and her 2012 Olympics teammate Jordyn Wieber were when Thomas Lopez first met Nassar. “We never should’ve met him.”
In raising that point, Raisman wasn’t placing blame on Thomas Lopez for not initially reporting her abuse, but on the institutions that enabled Nassar to get away with it for so long. (Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in January 2018.)
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that this is so much bigger than Larry Nassar,” Raisman told ESPN the Magazine. “He thrived for decades. If someone thrives for decades, there are people who knew about it and did nothing. There were so many people who let us down.”
With her aforementioned cover quote, Raisman also placed blame on the societal forces that make women and girls feel lesser-than because of the way they look.
The gold medalist, who currently lives in Needham with her parents, told the publication that after realizing she had been abused, she suffered from PTSD-like symptoms of paranoia and anxiety, and has continued to manage her stress with therapy, meditation, and acupuncture. Later in the interview, she said that her anxiety has worsened in recent months, and so she is embracing creature comforts like trips to the Cape with her family and hanging out with her dogs.
Though Raisman has hardly led the life of a normal 24-year-old, she revealed that she will soon take on one of the exciting steps of 20-something adulthood when she moves into her own apartment for the first time later this year.
“I’ve never gotten to pick out furniture, all that stuff,” Raisman said. “I’m very excited.”
