mustdefine

Who are these unmarried maidens? I don’t recognize them. 

I heard about it from the Internet, I saw the photo. So it was a surprise for me. I wasn’t invited to the celebration, but, of course,i’ll congratulate her. Probably, I will send sms-message. She will see the SMS exactly! Sergey Starkin.

YIKES.

i want a lot of things out of the next quad but if i could only have one (1) thing it’d be romanian gymnastics finally getting their shit together

anyway larisa iordache for world all-around champion 2017 glad we all agree

I’m still trying to acknowledge the fact both of next year’s World AA champions will be different. It’s weird to think about.

He better serve time for this because this is fucking DISGUSTING and those girls did not deserve the bullshit that happened to them

This is a civil case, not a criminal one. There won’t be time for what was filed on the 8th.

Also, from reading the complaint and the dates mentioned, the statute of limitations on sexual abuse would have run out long ago so criminal charges couldn’t be filed anyway. In theory Steve Penny/his predecessors/USAG could be criminally charged if there is actual evidence of ongoing coverup of a crime, but I highly doubt that’ll happen. Unfortunately with such a long time between the time of the alleged crimes and the lack of evidence, a civil case is the victim’s best option here.

Agreed. 

Does anyone know what happens next, then? Like, will Larry/USAG be able to publicly respond to the accusations in any way?

USA Gymnastics has a hell of a mess to clean up. All the success of the women’s program doesn’t mean much when there might be sexual predators taking advantage of gymnasts in the system. I can’t even begin to imagine other victims unaccounted for and others who were brushed aside despite coming forward. I don’t think USA Gymnastics can afford to continue to sweep this under the rug like they have been, otherwise how can any parent or coach put their kid(s) in a system they can’t trust? 

I don’t want to sound like I am glad this happened to the woman in the lawsuit; I’m definitely not. But I think her coming forward is definitely going to have a bigger impact on USAG than other previous incidents because they can’t sweep it under the rug as just some coach at a USAG-affiliated gym in rural wherever that they had little direct contact or oversight over. Not that they weren’t negligent in those situations as well, but it’s harder for them to ignore or minimize this when it’s Larry Nassar being accused of miconduct directly under the noses of the Karolyis & Steve Penny & his predecessors. Obviously the Marvin Sharp situation hit closer to home than other regional coaches because he coached national team gymnasts but even in his case they kind of swept it aside. Not sure they can do that now that it’s clear this occurred on national team trips while the victim was directly under USAG supervision. 

For those wondering about my comments about the 2000 US Olympic team, I’m referring to this lawsuit that GymCastic posted today. Everything is there. Unfortunately the details are very graphic and disturbing, so read with caution. 

This is so fucked up. Just thinking about how many years that man had the job on the national team and how many gymnasts he had been in contact with all this time makes me wanna vomit