The US gymnast, who gave an electrifying victim statement face to face with her abuser in court, is now taking on the US Olympic Committee
Last Friday, the multiple gold medal‑winning US gymnast Aly Raisman delivered an electrifyingly powerful victim statement at the sentencing hearing of the former US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend you take the time. For any 23-year-old to speak with such intensity, poise and control would be remarkable; to do so directly to her sexual abuser in a packed courtroom under the gaze of the cameras is of a radically different order.
I’m glad Raisman was so clear about having only just begun to use her power and voice, because to watch her speak is to watch someone make the most stunning of debuts into public life. She made the speech on Friday afternoon; by Saturday morning quotations from it were already on placards at the women’s marches across America.
Related: 'I signed your death warrant': Larry Nassar jailed for up to 175 years for sexual abuse
It has not exploded as it should have. Perhaps because gymnastics isn't football, or baseball, or basketball
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