Larry Nassar, Jamie Dancer, Maggie Nicols discussed on With Friends Like These

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

Trust to trust their own experience and worldview and what they believe is happening to them and so all of that results in yes then becoming good soldiers. Who do what they are told an. Ask no questions. Because they believe that is the only way to get to their goal which is to become an olympic gymnast. And i have a few questions about the the culture changing. I think it's interesting that these systemic changes happened sort of alongside that the age of genus kind of rising a little bit the kind of body. That's acceptable in gymnastics changing a little bit. Is that another reason. Why i mean i guess just looking for like what it took like. What was what made it possible for people. These young women to start speaking out did just take one really brave person. It took a handful of really brave women. Because you know it's hard. It's hard to know what we don't know right. It's hard to. It's hard to project what would have happened. Had the larry nassar scandal not broke in two thousand sixteen. Would we still be in the same place we were five years ago. Would he still be abusing young women. Would the gymnasts we interact with still be closed off and you know unwilling and fearful of speaking their minds. It's very possible when that story broke because of fearlessness. And probably not even the right word because there was a ton of fear around. What would happen to them by women. Like jamie dancer and rachel dead. Hollander and maggie nicols once you know it was one and then it was too and then it was fifty one and then it was two hundred and as the numbers grew in these women realized. Well if i if. I know this if i knew this thing was happening to me but i believed i was wrong about it in my own. Mind or no one would believe me or i wouldn't have support all of these. Other women are experiencing the same thing. Will what other things are we experiencing together. What other shared experiences do we have. And as they spoke out and they received such incredible support including at his hearing at nassar's hearing when they all had the opportunities to stand up and speak out and to and you know in speak their truths. That really was the moment that changed everything. And that all came from the athletes at one voice supported another voice magnified another voice and and as they each spoke out it gave permission and support to the others to do the same. And i think that moment is what changed the culture of the sport and it has a long way to go but that that's the moment i of course have been reading a lot about simone biles in preparation for my ecstatic. Two weeks of obsession with with gymnastics and it occurred to me. I almost feel weird talking about her. Because she's so talked about like there are other amazing gymnast but the more i read about her the more i thought she epitomizes. She is a some of these changes on a few different levels. Not just the body type. Not just the age. Yeah i mean you know first of all to what we were. Just speaking about using your voice simone in twenty sixteen was already the most famous gymnast. Maybe ever certainly in the world one of the biggest names in all of sports but she did not yet realize the power. She had the voice that she had. You know that that gas lighting goes a real. It's it's it's It goes pretty deep and so she talks about the fact that you know yes on paper she could read a story about who simone biles was and.

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