Beyond Larry Nassar: hundreds of athletes are fighting USA Gymnastics in court over abuse

Shenea Booth says she was 15 years old when her gymnastics coach started abusing her.

She had moved in with the coach, David Reiakvam, then in his early 30s, to facilitate her training, she told Vox. But in 2001, she says, he began molesting her.

“David Reiakvam would molest me in the car while driving to and from gym practice,” Booth wrote in a recent legal complaint, “and would do so in the presence of his toddler son.”

“I was sexually abused by David Reiakvam on a minimum of 200 separate occasions,” she wrote.

The physical abuse ended in 2002, Booth wrote. But she told Vox that Reiakvam had a “hold” on her for years. She says he used to tell her, “I can basically call you anytime I want within your life, and I’ll pretty much always have you. You’ll always be available to me.” Vox’s several attempts to reach Reiakvam have been unsuccessful.

Booth’s story is far from unusual. The case of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar has gotten national attention in recent years, with hundreds of survivors testifying at his sentencing hearing in 2018. But he is just one of many coaches and others who have been accused of sexual, physical, or psychological abuse by current and former gymnasts. And many say that USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, failed to protect them and fostered a culture where abuse could thrive.

“It’s not just about him,” Booth said of Nassar. “There are so many like him in USA Gymnastics.”

Now could be her last chance to hold the organization accountable. USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy last year, after facing dozens of lawsuits related to Nassar’s crimes. The bankruptcy filing put all of those suits on hold. But as part of the bankruptcy case, survivors like Booth have one more opportunity to come forward.

USA Gymnastics says that in the wake of the revelations about Nassar, it’s working hard to make sure athletes are safe. “Athletes are the heart and soul of our sport, and we must put them first and foster a safe environment where our gymnasts have a voice and can thrive,” said Li Li Leung, president and CEO of the group, in a statement to Vox.

But some say the sport’s governing body still isn’t committed to changing its culture. In the coming months, current and former athletes will be making a last-ditch effort to demand restitution — and to prevent what happened with Nassar from happening again.

Allegations of sexual abuse in USA Gymnastics began to get widespread public attention in 2016 via an exposé in the Indianapolis Star. Soon after, former gymnast Rachael Denhollander reached out to the newspaper to tell her story of abuse by Nassar. Her public allegation was the first of many, and Nassar was sentenced last year to 40 to 175 years in prison for criminal sexual abuse (he also faces a separate 60-year sentence for child pornography).

The case focused public attention on USA Gymnastics, which knew about allegations against Nassar for weeks before contacting law enforcement, according to the Indianapolis Star. Survivors of abuse by Nassar and others began suing the group, and last December, USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy. The group stated at the time that the filing would help “expedite an equitable resolution of the claims made by the survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar.”

The filing puts a hold on all outstanding lawsuits against USA Gymnastics, according to Pamela Foohey, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington who studies bankruptcy. Anyone who wants to sue the group can instead file a claim to become a creditor in the bankruptcy case. After the case is resolved, each creditor will be able to get a portion of the money.

But it’s not just about the cash. Coming forward in a bankruptcy case can be “a way for people to get heard,” Foohey said. In cases involving sexual abuse, there’s often a special committee that speaks on survivors’ behalf in court.

And former gymnasts have a lot to say about a culture they believe enabled not just Nassar but other abusers as well.

Dominique Moceanu, who was part of the US team that won gold at the 1996 Olympics, told Vox that emotional, psychological, and physical abuse was endemic to the sport when she was competing. Coaches showed disregard for athletes’ well-being, forcing them to keep training with overuse injuries, she said.

“Abuse became the norm to achieve success,” Moceanu said.

Physical and emotional abuse by coaches made gymnasts more vulnerable to sexual abuse by Nassar, Moceanu said, because he was able to gain the trust of athletes who had no one else to turn to — “it was a perfect preying situation.”

And Nassar is far from the only person to be accused of sexual misconduct within USA Gymnastics. According to the 2016 investigation by the Indianapolis Star, USA Gymnastics kept sexual misconduct complaints against more than 50 coaches hidden away in a drawer. The Star was unable to gain access to those files at the time but independently identified four cases in which the organization was warned about suspected abuse but did not alert the authorities. The four coaches involved — Marvin Sharp, Mark Schiefelbein, James Bell, and William McCabe — went on to abuse at least 14 underage gymnasts, according to the Star.

“We will never forget the appalling acts of abuse that have forever impacted our athletes and the gymnastics community,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement to Vox. “We are working every day to rebuild the organization and the community’s trust.”

Reiakvam, Booth’s coach, eventually came under investigation in 2010, when a gymnastics academy owner told police in Riverside, California, that she was worried he might be sexually abusing students, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department told Vox. With help from Booth, authorities eventually arrested Reiakvam and charged him with multiple felony counts, in connection with allegations that he abused other teenage gymnasts.

Booth and another former gymnast, Amy Angome, testified at his sentencing hearing. “You took impressionable children’s dreams and used them instead for your sick, perverted pleasure,” said Angome, who reported that Reiakvam had molested her beginning when she was 13.

But because of a plea bargain, Reiakvam was sentenced to only two years in jail.

Booth, meanwhile, says she felt the effects of Reiakvam’s abuse for years. After her retirement from competitive gymnastics in 2004, she began a career as an acrobat, performing with Cirque du Soleil and other groups. Several years later, when a coworker made advances to her, she felt like she couldn’t refuse, she said.

“I’ve never known how to say no to people because of those experiences with my coach,” she said.

The coworker became abusive and sexually assaulted her, Booth said in a statement to police in 2018. For years, she didn’t report the assault, but as the #MeToo movement gained public attention in 2017, she decided to come forward, making reports to police and her former employer.

Booth filed paperwork to join the USA Gymnastics bankruptcy case in March. In a proof of claim document filed as part of the case, she says USA Gymnastics officials were aware of reports of sexual abuse by Reiakvam as early as 2002 but allowed him to continue coaching until 2010. She also says even after 2010, when the sexual abuse case against Reiakvam was making its way through the justice system, he was still allowed to attend gymnastics competitions.

In a statement to Vox, USA Gymnastics said it was unable to comment on these allegations except to say that Reiakvam “is on the list of individuals who are permanently ineligible for membership.”

“Every aspect of my life has been damaged due to the egregious sexual abuses that I suffered at the hands of David Reiakvam,” Booth writes in the proof of claim document. “I am without a shadow of a doubt not the person that I could have been if it were not for the abuses I suffered at the hands of an inadequate and unregulated system known as USAG.”

Even though USA Gymnastics has been forced to file for bankruptcy, some worry the organization still hasn’t shown a real commitment to change.

USA Gymnastics told Vox it has taken a number of steps, including updating its policies around sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, as well as making it easier to report suspected misconduct.

But in November, the governing body gave a top job to Mary Lee Tracy, a coach who defended Nassar and has been accused of shaming athletes for their weight, the New York Times reported. The appointment was quickly reversed — the organization told Vox it “asked Mary Lee Tracy to resign from the elite development coordinator role” — but a bankruptcy hearing in February left survivors disappointed as a representative for USA Gymnastics proved unable to answer key questions, according to the Indianapolis Star.

”This was just one big ‘I don’t know.’ It doesn’t seem like you are making a good-faith effort,” former gymnast Tasha Schwikert said at the hearing.

Asked about the February hearing, USA Gymnastics told Vox that the meeting “was focused on financial issues” and that the representative “had the necessary financial information to respond.”

Meanwhile, Leung, the president of USA Gymnastics, angered some survivors earlier this month when she said on Today that while Nassar had seen her as a teenager, he did not abuse her because her coach was present. Some survivors responded that they had been abused while parents or other adults were in the room, according to USA Today.

Leung later apologized, tweeting, “I understand how my comment seems insensitive to the survivors and their families.” She also said she hopes survivors of abuse in gymnastics “will have a dialogue with us regarding athlete safety and well-being going forward.”

Beyond monetary compensation, Booth and other survivors participating in the bankruptcy case want to make sure current and future athletes are safe. Booth would like to see more scrutiny of coaches and better communication between USA Gymnastics officials and the facilities where athletes train, among other reforms.

“Everything should change about USAG,” she wrote in a survey submitted to the organization last year. “The focus needs to be on the safety and well being of the athletes.”

Meanwhile, she wants to make sure the public knows that the problems with USA Gymnastics go beyond Larry Nassar — and didn’t end just because he went to prison.

“Unless people continue to speak,” Booth said, “there’s a lot of stuff that could just kind of fall away.”