USAG Response To Impact Statements Not Sitting Well With Jordyn Wieber
USAG Response To Impact Statements Not Sitting Well With Jordyn Wieber
Jordyn Wieber criticizes statements made on behalf of USAG, claims the organization means to silence victims yet again.
In an interview with the Southern California News Group last Wednesday, Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber expressed her disappointment with USA Gymnastic's response to the 156 impact statements during Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing in January.
Wieber responded to statements made by USA Gymnastics attorney Margaret M. Holm regarding the civil suits against USAG, Nassar, Don Peters, and the Karolyis, in which Holm states that the impact statements provide no proof that USAG was aware of Nassar's abuse before June of 2015.
"To date, there have been absolutely no facts presented in any victim statement that USAG, including its former officials and directors, had knowledge of Nassar’s potential sexual misconduct with any athlete prior to June 2015," Holm wrote in the Orange County Superior Court filings.
Wieber contends that this kind of statement mirrors the problematic culture in which young women were too afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation from the governing body. Furthermore, she says she witnessed a USA Gymnastics employee being informed of the former doctor's actions prior to 2015.
"It just feels like nothing has changed," Wieber said. "It feels like they still don’t believe us. They still don’t feel bad. They’re still not accepting accountability for what happened, even though they are responsible."
Though she declined to name the persons, Wieber told SCNG that she heard an Olympic gold medalist discuss Nassar's abuse in front of a USAG staff member before 2015.
USAG responded to Wieber's comments on Thursday in a statement claiming that attorney Holt's case briefing "was not intended to and does not diminish the powerful statements shared by young women like Jordyn Wieber during the sentencing of Larry Nassar."
"I refuse to wait any longer for these organizations to do the right thing."
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 2, 2018
Gymnast Aly Raisman sues U.S. Olympic Committee over Larry Nassar abuse.
https://t.co/FrxfCM4KJO
Though the USOC plans to conduct an internal investigation concerning who knew about the abuse and when they knew about it, Wieber and her fellow athletes are not convinced.
Read Wieber's full interview here.
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