The undoing of Larry Nassar: How the acclaimed sports doctor was taken down by just one email

Larry Nassar was once a highly renowned and decorated sports doctor, serving as the key consultant for Team USA's gymnastics team, among others. Today, he is currently serving a 175-year prison sentence for the serial s e x u a l abuse of over 150 underage girls and possession of shocking child exploitation material. 

One of the most disturbing things about Nassar’s case is the position he held at the time that facilitated his offending – he was the doctor for the U.S. national gymnastics team, a position he held for almost 20 years.

So renowned was Nassar for his work, he was elevated to a key position in the gymnastics field, working directly with some of the sport's biggest names, including Simone Biles.  

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In fact, his respect among many people in the athletic community facilitated his crimes as countless girls came forward with allegations that were ultimately ignored by Nassar’s colleagues who believed the former doctor could do no wrong. Let’s examine how it all finally came apart for Nassar. Please be advised some details may be upsetting.

It all started with an email from one of his victims, Rachael Denhollander in March 2016.  Denhollander had read an article detailing the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations by the national governing body of gymnastics, published by the Indianapolis Star, and decided to share her side.

“I recently read the article titled ‘Out of Balance’ published by the IndyStar.” The email read, as printed by the IndyStar reported. “My experience may not be relevant to your investigation, but I am emailing to report an incident that may be. I was not molested by my coach, but I was molested by Dr Larry Nassar, the team doctor for USAG. I was 15 years old, and it was under the guise of medical treatment for my back.”

Denhollander had little faith anything would come from sharing such information, much like the other accounts from Nassar’s young victims that had been routinely ignored by coaches, administrators, and even the police.

Fortunately, Denhollander was now an adult and a practicing attorney and was willing to go public, putting her name on the line to publicly call out the abusive doctor. It was a campaign she undertook solely for over six months. 

By November 2016, the FBI had already built up a damning case against Nassar, and he had been arrested on three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13. His bail, which was posted, was set at 1 million US dollars. Things would only get worse for Nassar from here. 

On top of this, he was also indicted for possessing thousands of images and videos relating to child harm. The subjects in this material included victims under the age of 12, The IndyStar reported. 

Over time though, more women came forward with their harrowing stories of abuse at the hands of Nassar, much of which occurred over a 20-year period while he was working at the Michigan State University and in the coveted USA Gymnastics position, under the guise of ‘medical treatment.’

By 2018, 156 women came forward with their own accounts, among them some of gymnastics’s biggest names, including Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber and Simone Biles.

Biles, one of Nassar’s most prominent victims came forward initially in a tweet using the MeToo hashtag. "I've felt a bit broken and the more I try to shut off the voice in my head, the louder it screams. I'm not afraid to tell my story anymore," she wrote.

These 156 women gave their accounts in court during Nassar’s 2018 hearing and described how they went to Nassar to receive treatment for sports injuries only to be sexually assaulted and told it was a form of treatment, CNN reported. 

Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct in Michigan and admitted to using his trusted medical position to assault and molest girls under the guise of medical treatment. He was sentenced to 175 years in prison.

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“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said upon sentencing as reported by CNN. “I find that you don’t get it, that you’re a danger. That you remain a danger.”

Prison life has not been kind to Nassar. In July 2023, he found himself back in the world of medicine, but this time it was as a patient after he was brutally stabbed in a prison altercation, allegedly after making lewd comments while watching a Wimbledon tennis match in the prison rec room, Sky News reported.  

“Justice has been done insofar as it can be, and it is good that we rejoice in that," Rachael Denhollander wrote in a tweet on December 9 2021. "But remember that tomorrow everyone wakes up still living the consequences. Don’t lose that reality in the midst of sober rejoicing in the truth."

In April 2024, 139 victims of Nassar were awarded an additional payout of $138.7 million (approximately £113 million or €130 million) due to the FBI's failure to act on the evidence presented to them regarding Nassar's crimes prior to 2016, as reported by Women’s Health.

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