Category: sport medicine

Kristle Lowell’s accusations of drug & sexual abuse

Kristle Lowell has been one of the top Trampoline & Tumbling competitors for team USA. She was the 2016 U.S. double mini champion. A 2013 World Champion.

Her accusations against Dr. George Drew, the former coach of the United States Double Mini Trampoline team, are horrifying. Kristle was an adult at the time, not a minor.

Drew retired June 2017. But the investigation into his conduct with Kristle and other athletes is ongoing.

Lauren Rosenberg worked with Kristle in writing up her story.

Former Team USA Trampoline Doctor Accused of Allegedly Drugging and Sexually Abusing Athletes

 

When asked about Lowell’s status, USA Gymnastics released the following statement:

Personnel and member matters are confidential, as well as any actions taken unless they involve a public result, such as suspension or being placed on the list of individuals who are permanently ineligible for membership. We decline to answer your specific questions due to ongoing investigatory matters and related allegations.

Happily Kristle is still training and competing.

Ray Zapata is back

Full FX 8 months after his Achilles injury.

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

(via papaliukin)

USAG is guilty

I don’t see how you can conclude anything else after hearing about this cover-up.

… the Indianapolis Star reports that while USA Gymnastics was sorting out what to do with Nassar, it was simultaneous helping the doctor create a cover story for his absence.

After Nichols made her report, Nassar was removed from contact with the national team. …

Rather than go with the truth—namely, telling people that Nassar was under investigation for child sexual abuse—or simply saying nothing at all, USA Gymnastics agreed to help Nassar offer a respectable excuse for his absence at gymnastics events in 2015. …

Report: USA Gymnastics Helped Cover For Larry Nassar’s Absences During Investigation

 

Changing Gymnastics Culture – a review

I just finished my first skim of Dave Tilley’s new book, more than 450 pages.

Something for every coach: sports medicine, injury prevention, conditioning, ethics, …

I’ll be going back through and excerpting some of my favourite sections.

Dave was partly inspired to put his ideas together by the Nassar crimes. He sensed “outdated training methods and a toxic culture can foster abusive practices” in Gym … making it possible for a pedophile to go undetected for decades.

Coaches spent inordinate amounts of time with young children and parents place complete trust in them. Young athletes are taught that their dreams may depend on the approval of a famous trainer or coach. They are also programmed to believe that obeying orders given, without question, is the only path to achieve their dreams.

Together, these truths about certain areas of our sport, while not necessarily inherently malicious in nature, certainly open to the door to abuse and mistreatment of young athletes. …

I certainly recommend you download and check it out for yourself.

Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.

The book is 3 PDFs.

In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.

MSU will pay $500 million to Nassar victims

Michigan State University has settled hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by the survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual assaults.

The settlement will cost the school $500 million. The school will pay $425 million now and hold $75 million in reserve in case other Nassar victims come forward. …

“There will be no confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements attached to the settlement,” …

Penn State University paid out $109 million to 35 victims in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. …

Detroit Free Press

Tiffany Lopez reported Nassar to MSU trainers in 1998

Twenty years ago, former Michigan State University softball star Tiffany Lopez told three of her trainers that she was being sexually abused by one of the university’s team physicians. His name was Larry Nassar.

It would be 19 years before Nassar — who has been accused by at least 265 women with sexually abusing them in his role as a doctor to young athletes at MSU and USA Gymnastics — would be arrested for his crimes.

Lopez says she stopped playing the sport she loved and left MSU after her claims went unheard. …

“If I had been heard and believed 20 years ago,” Lopez told the crowd gathered at today’s summit, “the women standing beside me — all of the 265 young women who have now bravely come forward as victims — would have been spared from the horrors of sexual abuse.”

Lopez was joined by other elite athletes who are survivors of Nassar’s abuse on stage at USOW, including Aly Raisman, Jeanette Antolin, and Jordyn Wieber. …

Pop Sugar

Karolyis sue USAG, USOC

In the world’s most litigious nation, we expected this.

Bela and Martha Karolyi have filed suit against the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, seeking more than a million dollars in damages and saying they should not be held responsible for any lawsuits stemming from crimes committed at their Sam Houston National Forest ranch by disgraced doctor Larry Nassar.

The suit, filed last month in Walker County, accuses USA Gymnastics of being in violation of a purchase agreement and a lease agreement at the couple’s ranch, which until last year housed the women’s national training center, and of failing to live up to a promise to “wrap their arms” around the couple and to defend them against allegations stemming from the Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

Houston Chronicle

related – Sabrina Vega sued Bela and Martha Karolyi as well as USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Changing Gymnastics Culture by Dave Tilley

After fifteen years competing up to the college level, and ten years coaching, I have spent the last five years as a medical provider treating almost all gymnasts (Sports Physical Therapy) while also still actively coaching competitive gymnastics at the same time. …

… in an effort to help, I have spent the last twelve months writing a new e-book covering all of these topics and more. I wrote it in an effort to spark conversations on how the sport of gymnastics can move into a new era that prioritizes athlete health, builds positive training cultures, and seeks the most optimal training methods based on scientific research as well as expert coaching opinion.

Shift Movement Science

Dave’s made his book free. Click through to download.

The book is 3 PDFs.

In addition are two resources: Myofascial Release Checklist and a Splits Complex.

I’ll be reviewing my own copy. I’m keen to hear what the sports medicine community has to say. So far as I can see they’ve been very quiet on Nassar. It was gymnasts who finally took him down, not parents or coaches nor his professional fraternity.