Annoyingly Libran – always rational, easily hurt emotionally, very passionate and maybe a little too intense
5 min read
Over the past two years, a series of scalding and necessary documentaries – “Lever Neverland,” “Survival R Kelly,” “Untouchables,” “Record On,” “Jeffrey Epstein: Phility Rich” – have shed light on sexual abuse and, above all, pornography. If not, the concentration of power that often allows it to be kept secret and permanent. Much of this high-profile power comes from a personality who is either a celebrity or a celebrity backstage manipulator: Harvey Weinstein, Michael Jackson, Russell Simmons, Jeffrey Epstein, and Kelly. The power wielded by these individuals is complete and destructive: the ability to threaten and intimidate, to twist and destroy careers, to suppress and squash the rule of law.
“Athlete A,” a disturbing and enlightening documentary about the sexual harassment scandal that hit the 2016 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team around Bonnie Cohen and John Schenck, revolves around a man who, in a certain way, objected to the same kind of serial objection: Dr. Larry Nasser, an osteopathic physician for 29 years, has been the team doctor. A 2016 investigation conducted by the Indianapolis Star revealed that NASA tortured dozens of young athletes during “routine” tests and physical-therapy sessions.
Corseli Ranch, Huntsville, Tex. Most of the abuse took place at the Caroli Ranch, its national gymnastics team training center, which was overseen by disabled instructors Bala and Murta Caroli, who led the U.S. team out of Romania with Nicola Siussescu. Intensity-border-cruelty which was part of their mystery. The Woodland camp looks decorated, but no parents were allowed to set foot there (which should be a red flag). And on the inside, the Carols practiced their particular brand of discipline, tormented teenage gymnasts about their weight, told them lazy, treated them like machines that needed to run within and outside their own boundaries … or otherwise.
This is relevant with sexual assault cases because within the military-national training camp in Huntsville, Larry Nasser, according to the documentary, the girls had a friendly authority figure – a loving indifferent goofball sometimes their food and candy slip. He did not explicitly threaten any of the girls, despite the fact that they were insulted by putting a finger in their vagina as part of the “test”. He always maintained this fiction that he sailed them. Most of them knew that something was deeply wrong, but they felt they had no place to turn.
Wherever the iron grip of power came from, it was within the organization. In the summer of 2015, Maggie Nichols, a brilliant gymnast who was on her way to form the Olympic team, told her mother that she had been tortured by NASA. His mother alerted an USA Gymnastics official, and the allegations soon reached Steve Penny, the company’s chief executive and president. He needed to legally alert the authorities, at this point. Instead, he hired an outside firm to conduct a personal investigation. Penny was defending Nasser, but what he was actually defending was the USA Gymnastics brand, which brings in $ 12 million a year. Other than that, the women’s gymnastics team chanted “Go USA!” Was part of the culture! Boostarism, which has marked the Olympic Games since 1984, was defended by Penn That. (As punishment and warning, he cut Maggie Nichols from the log)
All of this is to say that the cover of Nari Nasser’s crime, written by “Athlete A”, is similar to the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals: the systematic protection of abusers who may not have been so strong, by an organization of extraordinary power. Once the Indianapolis Star began its investigation in August 2016, in the middle of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio, Domino’s began to read. The paper report involved the testimony of two whistleblowers: Jamie Dantsher and Rachel Denholander, both members of the 2000 Olympic team who went ahead 16 years after being tortured (which happened, in secret) way, in front of Denholander’s mother when she sat in NASA’s test room. ).
NASA responded by telling the newspaper that he had never touched the personal part of anyone he was testing. But since this is a huge lie (he did it a few times), other survivors began to come forward with their own stories. Police raided his home and trash and found a hard drive containing thousands of pornographic images, including a few children. During Nasser’s trial, 125 women agreed to appear in court to present testimonials of their influence.
Each high-profile sexually-offensive case is a kind of spider web, capable and co-conspirators with a toxic strand, until recently, all the wounds of what happened were a greater cultural denial. Cohen and Schenk urged “Athlete A” to give us the pain and courage of these survivors, but also to glimpse the background to the larger picture of what happened. In this case, the movie re-identifies the inactivity with Bala and Martha Catoli, who won three gold medals at the 19th Summer Olympic Games, winning first place in their 14-year-old Romanian gymnast superstar Nadia Komenich’s triumph. In doing so, he changed the face of the sport.
In the 50’s and 60’s, female gymnasts were female competitors. Romanians started the idea of training female gymnasts at a very young age. “What was raised was an aesthetic that was very, very young – childish,” said Jennifer Seye, USA 197 National Champion in Gymnastics. It called it a “dangerous environment” that helped reduce foodborne illness, delays in ation dehydration, and the belief that it would make it harder. After the Carolinas were flawed, far-sighted U.S. rocket scientist Warner von Brann became the architect of the U.S. space program. The United States arrested him as Olympic coach. That was the brutality that Carolis represented Too Eastern block, however, they produced the winner, and U.S. officials were keen to import their rigorously designed school.
Saying “Athlete A” points out that the Kuroli method itself was a form of abuse. The girls who were victims of it almost had to steel themselves to the tragic rigors of their training in the way of Stockholm Syndrome. So it is only natural that they should hang themselves in more horrific forms of abuse. “Athlete A” is a testament to their perseverance and to the courage of all those who stood on the court in the face of the person who violated their humanity. But it is also a testament to the passion that covers their torture – in a culture that wants to win at any cost.
