USA gymnastics meet opens under cloud of mounting legal action against disgraced doctor, institutions

BOSTON - USA Gymnastics began its national championships Thursday night amid more reminders of the Larry Nassar scandal - a lawsuit filed by a Texas gymnast against the organization and acknowledgements by two more Olympic gold medalists that they, too, were among Nassar’s victims.

2016 gold medalist Madison Kocian of Dallas and 2012 gold medalist Kyla Ross appeared on “CBS News This Morning” to add their names to the hundreds who have said they were sexually abused by Nassar, the longtime USA Gymnastics team doctor, under the guise of medical care.

Kocian and Ross, joined by their coach, Valorie Kondos Field, depicted the two gymnasts as being violated not only by Nassar but by a culture of silence and verbal abuse fostered by former national team coordinator Martha Karolyi at the Sam Houston National Forest ranch that until last year served as the women’s national team training center.

Nassar was able to groom his victims and gain their trust, the coach said, because “USA Gymnastics was more concerned in protecting Martha Karolyi than checking in on our children.”

“They were so isolated at the ranch. And we protected Martha so much. You didn’t question Martha. Nobody questioned Martha,” Kondos Field said. “Why? Because she won.

“And when I asked why do we allow - I was just talking about verbal abuse and the mental abuse - why do we allow that? They said - they looked at me like I was crazy. They said, ‘Because she wins, Val.’ ”

A Walker County grand jury that earlier returned indictments against Nassar, who is serving the equivalent of a life prison sentence, and former USA Gymnastics trainer Debra Van Horn found no evidence Martha Karolyi and her husband, Bela Karolyi, were aware of Nassar’s behavior.

That grand jury remains in session through the end of September, and District Attorney David Weeks said the investigation into Nassar’s behavior and other potential offenses that might have occurred at the Karolyi Ranch remains under investigation.

Kocian said during the CBS interview that Nassar “was almost like a family member. … He would just kind of be the person that would always ask, ‘how are you doing?’ Because the culture that was at the Karolyi Ranch was a culture of fear, a culture of silence. And that’s what led him to be able to abuse us.”

Kocian and Ross remain critical of USA Gymnastics, which has a new CEO, Kerry Perry, and has enacted other attempted reforms in the wake of the Nassar revelations.

“There are still people at the top that I feel have overseen this issue for a long time and I think that needs to be changed as well as the whole culture around everything,” Kocian told the Associated Press. “I don’t think enough has been changed from the coaching standpoint. There are still coaches under that abusive style of coaching whether it’s verbal abuse, that’s what enables all of this.”

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it is “heartbroken and sorry that Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian or any of our athletes have been harmed by the horrific acts of Larry Nassar. USA Gymnastics’ support is unwavering for Kyla, Madison and all athletes who courageously came forward to share their experiences.”

Meanwhile, a former national team gymnast from Texas identified only as Jane Doe filed suit Thursday in an Illinois state court in Chicago against Nassar, USA Gymnastics, the International Gymnastics Federation and World Sport Chicago, which staged the U.S. Classic event in 2014.

The Texas gymnast, who was a member of the national team from 2013 through 2016, said in the suit that she was abused by Nassar in Chicago, at the 2014 national championships and 2014 world championships.

Causes of action cited in the suit include negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and assault and battery. The suit seeks unspecified damages of more than $50,000.

The suit could be one of several filed by Waco attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel, who along with Houston attorney Mo Aziz, represent 20 former gymnasts who were abused by Nassar. It is believed to be one of the first that cites not only Nassar and USA Gymnastics but also the promoter of an event at which a gymnast was assaulted, bringing up the possibility of other actions in other states where USA Gymnastics and FIG have staged events in the past two decades.

“We have other cases that we are preparing to file in other jurisdictions … involving other institutions we believe also have responsibility, just like USA Gymnastics,” Tuegel said.

The timing of Thursday’s filing, as the national championships were about to begin, calls into question what Tuegel said was the need for USA Gymnastics to speed up the pace of reform and to give Nassar’s victims a larger voice in the federation’s day-to-day administration.

“They need to be placed in meaningful positions as people who have been through this and who have a real interest, because it happened to them, in trying to fix things,” she said.

“It isn’t just replacing a person, It’s changing the culture. There needs to be public and real conversation, real words spoken from the powers that be to the people who have been hurt.”

USA Gymnastics said in response to the Jane Doe lawsuit that the “powerful voices and stories (of Nassar’s victims) will continue to be a basis for our future decisions. USA Gymnastics is committed to building a culture that empowers and encourages our athletes, including speaking up about abuse and other difficult topics.”

david.barron@chron.com

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