Maggie Nichols says she was first to report Dr. Larry Nassar to USA Gymnastics
Maggie Nichols announced Tuesday that she, too, was sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics team physician Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar and that she was the first to report the abuse to the sport’s national governing body.
“Up until now, I was identified as Athlete A by USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Michigan State University,” Nichols said in a statement provided by her lawyer, John Manly. “I want everyone to know that he did not do this to Athlete A, he did it to Maggie Nichols.”
Nichols’ mother, Gina Nichols, said in a phone interview that her daughter finally felt comfortable speaking out after “living with this torment” for so long.
“We kept being told USA Gymnastics is handling it, so she just did what she was told to do, and she was told to keep quiet,” said Gina Nichols, who accused USA Gymnastics of a cover-up. “If she uses her voice and comes forward, she feels she might be able to help others.”
In speaking out, Nichols joins former team members McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and more than 100 other women who say they were abused by the doctor.
The abuse began when she was 15, Nichols said. At the time she was a rising star on the U.S. national team, aiming for a spot at the Olympics.
“My back was really hurting me, I couldn’t even really bend down, and I remember he took me into the training room, closed the door and closed the blinds,” she said. “I trusted what he was doing at first, but then he started touching me in places I really didn’t think he should. He didn’t have gloves on and he didn’t tell me what he was doing.”
She added, “He did this ‘treatment’ on me, on numerous occasions.”
Nassar would also pay her compliments on Facebook and tell her how beautiful she was, Nichols said. At the time, she thought “he was trying to be nice to me.”
Now, she said, “I believe this was part of the grooming process I recently learned about.”
She reported the abuse to USA Gymnastics in the summer of 2015, she said, setting off an investigation into Nassar, who was fired that year.
But according to Nichols’ lawyer, USA Gymnastics waited five weeks to notify law enforcement and did not report the reason for Nassar’s dismissal to Michigan State University, where he continued to practice medicine until he was arrested. Likewise, Michigan State did not alert USA Gymnastics when the university investigated Nassar in 2014, Manly said.
USA Gymnastics was not informed in 2014 because the result of the investigation was that there was not a policy violation, “and the local prosecutor’s office reviewed the case and declined to press charges against Nassar,” Jason Cody, a spokesman for Michigan State University, said in an email Tuesday. “Also, the complainant was not a gymnast or a minor, nor did the complaint involve allegations of penetration.”
USA Gymnastics said in a statement Tuesday that it was “entirely baseless” to suggest that it had attempted to silence athletes or keep the investigation secret, and that it never tried to hide Nassar’s misconduct.
“USA Gymnastics kept the matter confidential because of the FBI’s directive not to interfere with the investigation,” the organization said. “USA Gymnastics reported Nassar to the FBI in July 2015 and to a different FBI office again in April 2016.”
When Nichols reported the abuse, USA Gymnastics hired “an experienced, independent investigator to speak with her and others,” it said in the statement, and that investigator recommended that USA Gymnastics report the abuse to law enforcement, at which point the FBI “took over the matter.”
USA Gymnastics said it cooperated fully with the FBI and refrained from discussing the matter in accordance with a “request to not do anything that might interfere with their investigation.”
Nichols retired in 2016 and has been competing collegiately instead.
When she announced that she would be leaving elite gymnastics, Nichols was a four-time U.S. medal winner and a member of the 2015 world championship gold-medal winning team, where she also won individual bronze on floor. She was not selected for the Olympic team and said a knee injury was part of what prevented her from continuing.
“After I hurt my knee, the doctors were telling me how much time I needed before I could start running or jumping,” she said at the time. “It was a lot to take mentally because I was watching all of the other girls getting better and better. I felt like I was always catching up and never at the level I wanted.”
Since joining the University of Oklahoma last year, Nichols has ranked first in the nation, and ESPN called her “the best collegiate gymnast in the country.”
Gina Nichols said USA Gymnastics has never inquired about her daughter’s well-being or offered to send her to therapy. “Never, nothing,” she said. “Not once.”
“For me as a parent, I feel like what happened to my daughter was inexcusable, gross negligence,” she added.
Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually abusing gymnasts under the guise of medical treatment and was sentenced in December to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges after more than 37,000 images of child pornography were found on his computer.
He is expected to be sentenced to 25 years or more on the molestation charges.
“USA Gymnastics and the USOC did not provide a safe environment for me and my teammates to train,” Nichols said in her statement Tuesday. “We were subjected to Dr. Nassar at every National Team Camp which occurred monthly at the Karolyi Ranch. His job was to care for our health and treat our injuries. Instead, he violated our innocence.”
