Maroney speaks out

[Doug1233]

Yes in one of the posts Maroney says Martha told her that Ebee Price would have replaced her.

Ebee had a great Amanar.

 

[choclatechip45]

Grace mentioned in the post I linked that Nassar made her uncomfortable so she always went to see the female trainer.

 

[Gabriel]

Maybe feelings, but nothing solid? Something about Nassar made Valeri uncomfortable, he may not have know what it was? I’ve had feelings like that, where I’m not comfortable being around someone, but can’t put a finger on why.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Same here. At least one gymnastics coach gave me weird vibes and I didn’t really understand why until my mom explained why she didn’t like him years later.

 

[glamafonic]

Not to mention that we don’t know that Valeri or any other coach didn’t say something. USAG had already ignored complaints directly from gymnasts about Nassar. I doubt they would’ve put much stock in a coach saying, without any evidence, “This fucker is creepy.”

 

[Kittentoes]

I was creeped out by him years ago. The way he just thrived off of being the one to throw tidbits of info to a hungry Gymnternet. His fanboy like enthusiasm for posting pics of himself hugging gymnasts. Most of us would take a pic and probably post it if we got the chance. I was squealariffic after meeting Jordan Jotchev. But…he was supposed to be their doctor. It’s not overly professional to brag about being with them, to say things like, “Oh, she’s not really injured”, etc.

 

[JaJa]

If Valeri had doubts or suspicions about Larry why didn’t he voice them?

For the same reason people have suspicions all the time about teachers, and coaches and doctors and priests and yet do not report them. This is what I am trying to raise here. Its the norm – not the deviation. And it is hardly limited to USAG or gymnastics or sports. It is anywhere where adult men have control and access and authority over young women. Or young boys. And people routinely turn a blind eye. So trying to fix this by focusing on how evil USAG is will not in fact fix it.

 

[cats]

This ^^ is exactly why it bothers me that the investigations were never properly completed. The opportunity to learn more about how people acted or didn’t act on things they knew or suspected, and what inklings people had, is valuable to humanity as a lesson so that we can do better finding and removing predators. I know I personally learned a ton about grooming from this whole chapter. Failing to learn absolutely everything there is to learn is really a disservice to the hundreds of young athletes who went through this abuse. To me it is a deeper issue than punishing people who broke the law.

 

[rlayt]

I wasn’t ready to read “Start By Believing” until recently and it’s even more horrifying to read the fully detailed step by step account of Geddert and Nassar. Master manipulators.

 

[ruby]

Some people have a better radar for people’s character than others. For myself, I am easily taken aback by people who others find awesome. I never met Nassar personally, just saw him at a competition twice and his online presence, but his behavior creeped me out and my thoughts went into THAT direction. Same for Sharp who I found weird but not creepy though…the photos on his gym website made me super suspicious. I don’t know about other people but the majority must have been blind to the signs or very easy to manipulate? I mean…in real life I know a few people whose motives I find questionable but without a concrete suspicion there is absolutely nothing you can do except protect yourself and the people in your care.

 

[MaryClare]

What photos?

 

[ruby]

He had photos up on his gym’s site…taken by himself…of his gymnasts I guess…among them Bridget. A little artsy and some of them with very thin, rather barely there dance leos. Some of these photos did not feel right to me and I remember wondering if the parents felt ok with them up.

 

[rue_des_plantes]

What photos?

If you went to the gym’s website, there was a side tab essentially saying, “by the way, we are also a photography studio!” and it was mostly individual portraits of young athletes.

 

[ucrgirl]

I read Rachel Dehollender’s book last year. It was horrifying but it seemed important for me to know what went wrong and sort of prepare myself to do the right thing if a child ever reported something to me.

We keep seeing examples of abuse coming out (in many spheres of life) and it always is revealed that years before someone had spoken up and the initial reports are covered up or fake “investigated” or not reported to the police. People need to be ready to report what they see and to remember that abusers are master manipulators.

 

[rlayt]

Joan Ryan’s book came out around 1995 IIRC. It was a major warning. Too bad nothing changed.

 

[MaryClare]

Too much of Joan Ryan’s book was incorrect and sensationalised for the general public for it to be taken seriously

 

[rlayt]

I don’t think the general public gives a rat’s ass. Which parts do you think were too sensationalized for gym parents, gym owners etc?

 

[MaryClare]

The general public are who buys books. The gymnastics community is very small, especially pre widespread internet access

 

[rlayt]

Okay regardless of who read it which parts were sensationalized?

I read books. Seeing as there are a lot of highly intelligent gym people here I bet they read books too.

 

[MaryClare]

You are missing my point.

The book is written to sell copies. The vast majority of people buying it will have at most a passing interest in gymnastics. That’s where the money is. It isn’t aimed at fans of sport or anyone involved in it.

There are far too much inaccuracy and hearsay, even though the book highlights some massive issues within the sport. It wasn’t written with the view of changing things, it was written to sell.

It’s been many years since I’ve read it, I’d have to re read it to answer your original question with any sort of detail