Chloe Rush Ms. Noris English - 5th Period 3/26/23 “The Fake Friend” “Larry, you saw all the physical, mental, and emotional abuse from our coaches and USAG national staff. You pretended to be on my side, calling all of them the monsters. But instead of protecting children and reporting the abuse you saw, you used your position of power to manipulate and abuse as well. You knew I was powerless” (Athlete A). This is a quote from when Jamie Dantzscher, a former Olympic gymnast, testestified against Nassar in court. Larry Nassar used his position of power to get close to his patients. He made them feel comfortable and that they had a friend in him when everyone else in the gymnastic world treated them like robots needing to be coded. Larry …show more content…
A mother of one his victoms said in the documentery “At The Heart Of Gold: Inside The USA Gymnastics Scandal”, “I felt we were lucky to have Larry” (At The Heart). These parents were told that this was an olympic level doctor and that it was a privilege to be seen by him, therefore they didn’t question any of his methods. Larry also built a close relationship with his patients, when everyone else was treating them poorly, Larry was on their side (or so he claimed). At The Heart Of Gold also mentioned, “You're beat up. You have coaches screaming at you, bullying you into doing stuff that you're not either ready to do or you're too tired to do. So, you're put in dangerous situations. Nassar was the guy-- he was the positive guy. He's the guy who snuck them food, gave them candy, let them borrow a cell phone. I mean, you talk to all these women who were on the national team who were abused by him, they said, "You know, he was our friend. If Larry's doing this, it must be okay because he-- he's our friend. He's, like, the one guy we trusted” (At the Heart). Larry knew that what he was doing was wrong, IndyStar wrote, “Nassar admitted that as a doctor, he was in a position of authority over his victims, and that he used that position to coerce them to submit to the penetration” (Adams