USA Gymnastics release official who knew about Larry Nassar sexual assault
The fallout from the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal continues, and it does not look like it is going to stop anytime soon.
USA Gymnastics have now cut ties with Rhonda Faehn, the senior vice president for women's programs who is believed to be the first official within the institution who was made aware of the sexual assault allegations against Nassar.
Here is what a statement that was issued on behalf of USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry said, according to The Indianapolis Star.
"Rhonda Faehn is no longer with USA Gymnastics. This is a personnel matter that we will not discuss in detail."
Faehn recently faced heavy criticism after two-time Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman revealed that she informed Faehn about Nassar's predatory behavior in the summer of 2015.
After that, at least 50 more gymnasts were sexually assaulted by Nassar before he was finally arrested in December of 2016, as Faehn and other officials within USA Gymnastics did not report Nassar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) right away after Raisman's accusations, which were not the first accusations against him that Faehn was made aware of.
Here is what Raisman had to say about the matter before USA Gymnastics cut ties with Faehn, according to The Indianapolis Star.
"I reported my abuse to Rhonda Faehn and so did [Oklahoma University gymnast] Maggie Nichols, and I don't know what she did or didn't do with that information, but I didn't get contacted by the FBI for over a year, and in that time 50 to 100 gymnasts were molested. This is my frustration of she's still working there, and we need to understand what she did or didn't do, because her and Steve Penny were fully aware of what's going on. I mean, she's still there."
Former Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney was also among those who alerted USA Gymnastics of what Nassar had done to her right after Maggie Nichols did and right around the time when Raisman did.
Raisman revealed that she had made Faehn aware of her accusations against Nassar when she was interviewed for the Dateline NBC special "Silent No More", which aired on Sunday, April 22.
However, NBC omitted that part from the interview that was shown on television, which left the 23-year-old Needham, Massachusetts native furious. She took to Twitter to express her frustration.
Raisman went on to publicly reveal Faehn's name later in the week anyway in an interview with E! News while she was at the Time 100 Gala 2018 for Time's Most Influential People of 2018. Here is what she said at that time.
"This is something that, of course, I am so passionate about, and I did mention in the interview that I reported my abuse to Rhonda Faehn, who is currently still the vice president of USA Gymnastics so I reported my abuse to her, and there was, I don't know what Rhonda did or didn't do from there, but at least 40 more gymnasts that we know of that have spoken up have been -- were molested -- in that time.
"So I don't know why they left that part out, but it seemed like they didn't want to talk bad about anyone that is still at USA Gymnastics currently and so I think that the more people that can know that we don't even understand how this disaster happened, the more that we need to get to the bottom of this."
Nassar, the 54-year-old disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician who has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 260 people, many of whom female gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment for roughly two decades, is set to spend the rest of his life in prison after being given prison sentences of 60 years, between 40 and 175 years and between 40 and 125 years in December, January and February, respectively.
He is currently serving his 60-year federal prison sentence, which he was given on three child pornography charges, at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona. His other two prison sentences are both state prison sentences that he was given on seven sexual assault charges and three sexual assault charges, respectively.