Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney makes scathing remarks against Larry Nassar in a written statement read in court before his sentencing on Thursday.
Maroney has earlier signed a non-disclosure agreement with the USA Gymnastics, prohibiting her to speak in court about the case. Breaking it would have cost her $100,000. But that did not stop her from disclosing what she had to say.
In a letter addressed to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, Maroney described how the USA gymnastics national team doctor, who they were told to trust, ruined her dreams.
The now 22-year-old retired gymnast said her nightmare began when she was about 13 or 14 years old, at one of her National Team training camps in Texas. It apparently did not end until she left the sport.
"It happened in London before my team and I won gold medal, and it happened before I won my silver medal," she wrote in the letter read in court. Maroney continued that her worst experience happened in Tokyo when she was 15.
She said Nassar gave her a sleeping pill for the flight. The next thing she knew, she was alone with him in his hotel room, getting a "treatment." "I thought I was going to die that night," she recalled of the incident.
She added that the former doctor's actions left "scars" on her psyche that may "never go away."
Maroney urged the court to give Nassar, who she described as a "child molester" and a "monster of a human being," to get the maximum sentence possible. "He needs to be behind bars so he will never prey upon another child," she added.
Maroney's letter, which was read by her prosecutor, is just one of the 105 statements made against Nassar during his week-long proceedings at the Ingham County court in Michigan.
Last December, the multi-Olympic medalist filed a lawsuit against USAG, Michigan University, and the United States Olympic Committee for allegedly paying her to conceal Nassar's sexual abuse.
