60 minutes rewind
ali raisman is one of the most accomplished american gymnasts of all time
she's won six olympic medals three of them gold and was captain of the
u.s teams that dominated the last two summer games in london in 2012 and in rio last year
she hopes to compete in her third olympics in tokyo in 2020 doing a backflip on a balance beam
takes a certain type of courage but tonight raceman will display courage of another kind
she's sharing a story that's about hard work and athletic achievement and talking publicly for the
first time about a deeply personal and painful part of her life it's a stunning development
for usa gymnastics the national governing body for her sport raceman told us she was sexually
abused while competing on the u.s national team and she says that's been difficult for her
to acknowledge i was in denial i was like i don't think i don't even know what to think you don't
want to let yourself believe you know i am i'm i am a victim of sexual abuse like it's really not
an easy thing to let yourself believe that you're saying you were sexually abused yes absolutely
by the national team doctor yes while you were out there representing your country yes
few athletes have represented their country with as much distinction as ali raisman her
floor routines at the last two olympics dazzled audiences and judges and provided some of the most
iconic moments of the summer games the doctor she says abused her larry nasser worked with the u.s
women's national team and athletes at michigan state university for more than two decades
reisman says nassar first treated her eight years ago when she was 15 years old i was
just really innocent i didn't really know you know you don't think that of someone you know so i just
i trusted him you thought it was medical treatment i didn't know anything differently
we were told he's the best doctor he's the united states olympic doctor and the usa
gymnastics doctor and we were very lucky we were able to see him nasser is now in jail he's pleaded
guilty to possessing child pornography but not guilty to charges that he sexually assaulted
underage girls most of them athletes who say his treatment for hip and back pain involved putting
an ungloved hand inside the vagina the girls would say yeah he touches you funny the first top u.s
gymnast to speak out about nassar appeared on 60 minutes in february describing what he did to them
more than a decade before ali raisman joined the national team over 130 women have filed
civil lawsuits alleging similar abuse nassar and his lawyers declined to comment for this story
raceman now 23 talks about her experiences in a new book called fierce it's the story of a girl
who dreamed of going to the olympics and how she managed to get there reisman says she will not
discuss the graphic details of what nassar did to her but she does provide new insight
into a scandal that goes to the highest level of her sport she told us a lot of people have
asked her why nassar's accusers didn't speak up sooner why are we looking at why didn't the girl
speak up why not look at what about the culture what did usa gymnastics do and larry nassar do
to manipulate these girls so much that they are so afraid to speak up you're angry i am angry
i'm really upset because it's been i care a lot you know when i see these young girls that come
up to me and they ask for pictures or autographs whatever it is i just i can't every time i look at
them every time i see them smiling i just think i just want to create change so that they never ever
have to go through this about 165 000 athletes and 3 400 gyms are members of usa gymnastics
racemen is calling for major changes in personnel training and education to keep athletes safe
allie raisman first joined usa gymnastics when she was in elementary school
here she is competing when she was nine as she got older she sacrificed family vacations
parties and boyfriends in favor of grueling workouts four to seven hours a day at a gym
in suburban boston run by her trusted coach mihai brestjen who she credits for much of her success
coming up in gymnastics did you think of yourself as naturally very talented no it's funny because
mihai will say i am the most uncoordinated olympian in the whole world is it true that you're
afraid of heights yes i'm very afraid of myself is that possible you're flying through the air
i don't know you know it doesn't scare me on floor but it scares me on bars
her hard work and dedication landed her a spot on the u.s team for the london olympics in 2012.
in the first key test in london the team finals ali's performance on the floor clinched gold for
the u.s their first gold ever on foreign soil it was a picture postcard moment that only told
part of the story one of the women standing next to raceman her teammate michaela maroney
said last month that nasser sexually abused her before the team's victory in a twitter post moroni
wrote that nassar's abuse started when i was 13 years old and it didn't end until i left the
sport raceman says she and other athletes did not realize at the time that nassar gained their trust
through a predatory technique designed to build an emotional bond with the athletes
it's called grooming he would always bring me you know desserts or gifts he would buy me
little things so i really thought he was a nice person i really thought he was looking out for
me that's why i want to do this interview that's why i want to talk about it i want people to know
just because someone is nice to you and just because everyone is saying they are the best
person it does not make it okay for them to ever make you uncomfortable ever usa gymnastics has a
long-standing policy that adults should avoid being alone with a minor despite that policy
reisman says she was alone with dr nasser he treated her and other athletes in their hotel
rooms during competitions abroad all those years you were out there representing the united states
of america did our country's sports system look out for you the way it should have no i think
nobody ever educated me on make sure you're not alone with an adult you know make sure he's
not making you uncomfortable i didn't know the signs i didn't know what sexual abuse really was
and i think that needs to be communicated to all of these athletes no matter the age
the story will continue after this
after helping her team win gold at the london olympics ali raisman had a crisis of confidence
in the next competition the individual all-around she finished fourth by the
time she got to her last chance for individual gold the floor exercise final she was so nervous
she considered not doing one of her more difficult moves but then your coach said something to you he
said you worked too hard to not be olympic champion because you're a little afraid
she took coach mihai's advice and won gold i felt like i was like floating it felt like it
was effortless and i've never felt like that before but it was like the best feeling in the
world i learned a valuable lesson that day in the all-around final i was nervous i doubted myself
and i made a mistake in the floor final i knew i was going to hit the best routine of my life and
i did she returned from london with three medals a hometown hero and an international celebrity she
competed on dancing with the stars got involved in business ventures and struck endorsement deals
with reebok and other companies but it wasn't enough she wanted to compete in a second olympics
something no american gymnast had done in 16 years did you think that some people had written you
off yes absolutely i remember when i first said i was coming back some other coaches would just say
i think it's going to be really hard for you i don't think you can do it that's not the thing to
say to you i don't think you can do it right yes but there were so many days where i just thought
should i stop should i this is just crazy this is so hard it got even harder in the summer of 2015
a year before the rio games when an investigator hired by usa gymnastics paid reisman a visit
a coach had raised concerns about dr nassar's treatment of athletes reisman says she was caught
off guard when the investigator asked her about it and i said you know well his touching makes
me uncomfortable but he's so nice to me and i i don't think he does it on purpose because
you know i think he cares about me so it was only after the investigator left that you began
to put the pieces together yeah i mean i think it's important for people to know too i'm still
trying to put the pieces together today you know it impacts you for the rest of your life
since the nassar scandal broke usa gymnastics president steve penny has resigned
and this week the organization announced the hiring of a new president
kerry j perry in a statement usa gymnastics told us it recently adopted a safe sport policy that
requires mandatory reporting of suspicions of sexual abuse and also sets standards to prohibit
grooming behavior and prevent inappropriate interaction between athletes and adults
usa gymnastics is very sorry that any athlete has been harmed the statement says we want to work
with ally and all interested athletes to keep athletes safe but raisman and her parents say
the changes don't go far enough with the exception of cpa you have the same people in place so
i don't really have tremendous hopes that a lot of those policies will be enforced a lot of
people are asking where were the parents we were there but if she's not knowing that it's wrong
never in a million years did i ever even think to say hey when you see the team doctor is there
someone with you if you could hit the rewind button is there anything you would have done
differently i think the most important thing if anyone takes anything away from this interview
is sit down with your kids and explain to them that predators aren't just strangers they can be
highly educated they can be very well respected in the community it could be a family member it
could be a family friend so you know that's really i mean if i could go back in time i would do that
ali raisman's experiences with dr nasser haunted her but did not stop her from pulling off one of
the most memorable performances of the olympic games in rio in the all-around she won silver i
finally competed in the all-around final without any major error i finally competed for myself and
i finally believed in myself that was just such a good feeling it was really empowering for me
after she returned from rio she says she spoke with fbi agents who had opened an investigation
of larry nassar this summer reisman and her teammates from rio were inducted into the
usa gymnastics hall of fame we must remember that protecting athletes comes first and doing
right by athletes is always the priority i love our sport so much and i want the best for it
some of the most powerful people in the sport were there but raisman says it seemed that many
of them were giving her the cold shoulder there was a table a lot of people that are very high
up in usa gymnastics that were in the room and um they didn't come over you know my my teammates and
i were all sitting at a table and they did not come over to say hi to us or to congratulate us
after your speech or before at all the whole time all we've done is is worked really hard
we love the sport and we were treated like you know we don't want anything to do with you girls
are you concerned that being so outspoken could jeopardize your odds of making the next olympics
you know i think that's a very valid point but i think that this speaking out in creating positive
change so that athletes are safe is more important than any olympic medal you could ever win you