NEW YORK _ In her first public appearance since revealing six months ago she was sexually abused by doctor Larry Nassar, Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney said Tuesday she at times questioned whether her gymnastics career was worth the abuse and rebuked USA Gymnastics, Michigan State and the U.S. Olympic Committee for turning a blind eye.
"All they cared about was money, medals, and it didn't seem like anything else," Maroney said at the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's spring luncheon at The Pierre hotel. "It was my biggest dream to compete for my country. They demanded excellence from me, but they couldn't give it to us."
Fear kept Maroney from publicly speaking out earlier, but she says she was inspired by the MeToo movement to tell her story and provide others who've been abused with courage.
"In a way, the fear turned to fearlessness when I knew it would help so many people," Maroney said. "I carried this secret around with me. A lot of people would say it would be empowering to speak, and it really was. I'm so happy to be here and speaking and lifting that weight off my shoulders because I don't think there can be anything more freeing than that."
Nassar, accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls, was sentenced in February to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison after approximately 200 of those women and girls spoke in person or through statements in court. He's currently serving a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography charges.
Maroney wasn't present at the trial but submitted a statement in which she said Nassar started abusing her when she was 13 or 14 years old at a national-team training camp in Texas and didn't end until she retired from gymnastics in 2016.
She trusted Nassar because people she looked up to were treated by him. It was difficult, Maroney said, for her family to pick up on red flags and that her family feels guilt.
"We have to let that go," Maroney said Tuesday. "Just because someone is in a powerful position doesn't mean that we should trust them. Just be careful. We can't have blind faith in these institutions anymore."
The NYSPCC is pushing for a bill to be passed that would amend New York State's Education Law to provide the same protections for private school students that public and charter school students have. Currently, administrators in private schools aren't required to report suspected cases of abuse by staff members.
"I just found out about this. It's ridiculous, it's despicable and the laws need to change," Maroney said. "I 100 percent support that bill."
Maroney says before she went public she "wasn't listened to, cared about or believed." She's calling for a mindset change in which any allegation is taken seriously by institutions.
"My team won gold medals in spite of USA Gymnastics, MSU and the USOC," Maroney said. "They don't build champions, they break them. But we're changing that."
