# Why did USA Gymnastics and others protect Larry Nassar? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [September 21, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070 "2021-09-21T17:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/1 "2021-09-21T17:28:44Z")
I know this is sports related, but not really about the sport of gymnastics. Mods you can move it if you want to. I really don’t understand why USA Gymnastics and others protected Larry Nassar. Even if they didn’t care one bit about the girls, why didn’t they see him as an enormous liability? Was he really that much better than other doctors? I am sure hundreds of doctors would have loved to have his job. Once again, assuming I was _completely amoral_, when it became clear what he was doing, the logical thing to protect your own organization’s skin is to quietly let him go and get another doctor. There appeared to be NO benefit to them. Why did they keep him for so long? Every year that he continued just mean more opportunities for it to come out and hurt them! Can someone explain this to me? I really don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/2 "2021-09-21T17:32:33Z")
I don’t have specific knowledge, but it could be a few things - institutional inertia (i.e. no one with the power could be bothered to do anything about it, always assuming it was someone else’s responsibility); misogynistic negligence (not believing the complaints); or the old boys club - maybe Nassar had powerful buddies. Or a combination, if not something else. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/3 "2021-09-21T17:35:03Z")
From what I heard of the testimony in Congress the other day, it sounds like the gymnasts were simply not believed. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/4 "2021-09-21T17:36:30Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > misogynistic negligence (not believing the complaints); I think this is a big one. At the time this broke in the news, I remember reading an article with quotes from many of the survivors and their parents talking about how they were all told that they misunderstood the treatments Nassar was providing. In some cases they were also discouraged from going ahead with their complaints, being told what a huge pain in the ass it would be for everyone involved. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/5 "2021-09-21T17:42:21Z")
It wasn’t a matter of evil people deliberately covering for a villain. Misplaced trust and obstinate disbelief despite multiple complaints explains a lot about why Nassar and others were allowed to get away with their actions for so long. Richard Strauss, a team doctor at Ohio State had at least 177 male abuse victims and some of what he was up to had been reported long before his exposure. Then there’s Sandusky at Penn State (not a physician, but similarly in a position of undeserved trust). John Story was a respected physician in a small Wyoming town, who for years (up until the mid-1980s) got away with sexually abusing and even raping patients, who were not believed because he was an admired family doctor and most of his victims were Mormons who were thought to have it in for him because he was of a different faith. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/6 "2021-09-21T17:46:47Z")
Some of it may be that since the girls were high performing athletics that it may have been assumed that they were more mature mentally than they actually were and would have reported abuse. Mentally more mature in a competitive arena, but they were still young teen aged girls and were possibly less mature than some of their peers who did not complete in Olympic level athletics. They lived in a constant train, compete and do what ever it takes to win bubble for the majority of their lives up to point when they were abused. And Dr. Nassar knew that and how to play them because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/7 "2021-09-21T18:59:53Z")
Unfortunate misspelling in thread title. Or bad pun, IMHO ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/8 "2021-09-21T19:29:33Z")
Aspenglow fixed it. 👍 > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Or bad pun, IMHO I’m going to assume goodwill, and therefore an innocent accident. 🤷‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/9 "2021-09-21T19:34:10Z")
Holy crap, that was not intended! Where is my browser’s spell check when I need it?! ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/10 "2021-09-21T19:34:41Z")
Suckas gots to know… what was the misspelling? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/11 "2021-09-21T19:41:02Z")
Ok. So it sounds like they actually just didn’t believe the girls. How stupid. It suppose it doesn’t really matter much if it was maliciously apathetic or grossly incompetent with a misogynistic bent. The result is the same. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/12 "2021-09-21T19:43:40Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > So it sounds like they actually just didn’t believe the girls. How stupid. And yet, it seems to reliably happen to victims of sexual assault in almost any set of circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/14 "2021-09-21T20:30:05Z")
I think it say “gynastics” instead of “gymnastics”. I remember reading a while back that even some of the parents ignored the girls, or maybe they were so focused on winning and Nassar had such a great rep that they downplayed what the girls were saying. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/15 "2021-09-22T02:32:08Z")
It’s not unique to sports. Jimmy Saville was a huge celebrity in the UK, and it appears to have been widely known that he was a predatory pedophile. So much so that when he visited sick children in the hospital the nurses would go out of their way to warn the kids and make sure they weren’t alone with him. He molested/raped hundreds of people, but it wasn’t until after his desth that serious investigations were Celebrities and important people just seem to get a lot of latitude, for many reasons. They are powerful, and may trynto destroy the complainant. No one wants to file charges against a celebrity, because it could destroy them if they aren’t believed. A celebrity who earns a lot of money for a lot of people can lean on them to rain hell down on anyone who might disrupt the gravy train. Plus they will have lots of people willing to believe anything they say so long as the gravy keeps flowing. It might not be a coincidence that Saville avoided justice until he was dead, and Bill Cosby only got charged after he no longer had a serious career. And it took a whole catalog of serious complaints to bring Harvey Weinstein down. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/16 "2021-09-22T06:24:16Z")
That’s definitely true. One girl told her parents what Nassar had done to her, and her father called her a liar. After Nassar was arrested, the father committed suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/17 "2021-09-22T06:35:14Z")
I think rationalization may be a factor. People often invent reasons for the things they did after they already did them. Some people who were in a position to have intervened may not have done so when they first heard the accusations. And then when more accusations were made, these people may have been making an unconscious choice; they may have found it more comfortable to their own self-image to keep believing in Nassar’s innocence rather than admit to themselves they had been wrong in their initial beliefs. Admitting they had made the wrong decision would have meant accepting some of the responsibility for the crimes that had occurred since then. ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/18 "2021-09-22T06:52:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It wasn’t a matter of evil people deliberately covering for a villain. Yes it was. > **[The FBI’s handling of Larry Nassar’s sex abuse is awful – but sadly...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/17/the-fbis-handling-of-larry-nassars-sex-abuse-is-awful-but-sadly-unsurprising)** > > Between the first complaints to the FBI and the time the agency took action, Nassar sexually abused some 70 women and girls. One of the agents who was supposed to investigate was angling for a job at USA Gymnastics > [@](#): > > a meaningful inquiry was delayed for months > [@](#): > > the agent who authored the report misrepresented what she had told him. > [@](#): > > The FBI did not refer the allegations to state and local authorities, as it is required to do in such cases > [@](#): > > And one of the agents assigned to the case, W Jay Abbott, seems to have been [hoping to get a job](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/politics/larry-nassar-fbi-justice-department-review/index.html) with USA Gymnastics or the US Olympic Committee. When internal investigators later asked Abbott about his job queries, he lied about them, according to the report. > [@](#): > > The FBI’s handling of the Nassar case reflects a stunning failure of empathy by the agents, as well as a callous abandonment of duty > [@](#): > > delaying the investigation ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/19 "2021-09-22T07:54:27Z")
I assume that Nasser had a huge say in who got to compete. If he said that a girl’s injuries were too chronic for her to move on, they would be dropped from the program. You probably didn’t want to cross him. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/20 "2021-09-23T11:17:18Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > So much so that when he visited sick children in the hospital the nurses would go out of their way to warn the kids and make sure they weren’t alone with him. The thing is, you can suspect someone, deeply suspect someone, but not have enough evidence to accuse them. And when you are worried about sexual impropriety, you don’t want to go ask people, especially children, leading questions. So I can easily imagine being nervous enough about someone not to want to leave young children alone with them but not have enough evidence to actually say anything. I’m not saying that was the case here: I don’t know the specifics. But I do think a reluctance to ask questions/raise concerns does function as a smoke screen for these sorts of situations. If you were uncomfortable with some story your daughter had about Nassar, but not even sure yourself if it was intended sexually, you’d just pull her. And abusers start with those sorts of ambiguous touches to figure out what they can get away with. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070/21 "2021-09-24T03:41:46Z")
Right. Also there is a sort of self-reinforcing dissuasive to these situations, in that people will think to themselves: _“If something really bad were going on and you could prove it… SOMEONE would say/do something about it, right? … right?”_ Especially when they don’t feel **they** can prove it. They perceive themselves as having a weak hand or no hand to play other than mitigation at the scale they can handle individually, and that indirectly strengthens the abusers’ hand and lets the institution look the other way with impunity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-usa-gymnastics-and-others-protect-larry-nassar/951070.md?page=2)