Jeanette Antolin
Larry manipulated, violated every ethical code of being a doctor. He robbed a good portion of my gymnastics experience, but not just for me, from countless women.
date of testimony: January 17th 2018
location of testimony: Lansing, Michigan
My name is Jeanette Antolin. I’m a former gymnast and was a national team member from 1995 to 2000. I started my gymnastics career at the young age of three. I became a national team member by the age of 14, dedicating my childhood to the sport I love. Gymnastics for me was life. It wasn’t just something I did. It was my passion. I had the honor of representing my country in two world championships and many international competitions.
As a national team member I trained at the Karolyi Ranch and was treated by the team physician, Larry Nassar. Larry was an employee of Michigan State and was someone we all held as one of the best doctors in his field, because that is what we were told.
We relied on Larry to heal our injuries, help us — and help us achieve our dreams. He gained our trust with his likability and compassion, but little did I know that behind his good guy facade there was a monster preying on innocent victims such as myself.
Larry manipulated, violated every ethical code of being a doctor. He robbed a good portion of my gymnastics experience, but not just for me, from countless women.
It’s hard for an outsider to understand the world of elite gymnastics and to understand how a man like Larry could gain the trust of so many young girls and sexually abuse them for so many years. For a young girl away from her home being worked into exhaustion by screaming coaches, a kindly doctor offering relief from pain and a little sympathy was easy to like. I was raised in the culture of gymnastics where we were taught your voice doesn’t matter. You follow instructions and never complain, especially about treatment.
You often hear that becoming a parent changes everything, and it’s true. Becoming a mother has made me realize that I would do anything to protect my child. It’s our profound responsibility as adults to keep our children safe.
As a parent you feel your children’s pain.
My mother wishes she could have protected me from this monster. She’s completely heartbroken and distraught from everything Larry has done to me.
Only a monster would harm innocent children the way that Larry did.
As a mother I understand how gravely heinous Larry’s treatments — treatments — were. I am disgusted that anyone, let alone a father himself, could carry out such grotesque acts.
I absolutely blame Larry for what he did to me and how his affects — and how this affects and impacts my life daily. It makes it hard for me to trust people and negatively impacts my relationship with others. I will never fully understand the evil that motivates an adult to abuse an innocent child, but I do understand the evil that organizations like USA Gymnastics and Michigan State to turn a blind eye to this abuse. It is the evil that places money and medals above the welfare of children. This is something that he depended on to continue to carry out his misdeeds.
Can I address Larry? Larry, you made me believe that you were my friend. You deceived me. You manipulated me, and you abused me. I truly believe that you’re a spawn of Satan. You used your hotel room as a personal playground to treat us. You used my innocent body as your sexual play toy. The biggest competition of my life that I trained years for, you stole that from me. My experience with you is all I remember about that.
Those little girls that you took advantage of so easily have now come back to haunt you all of the days of your life. As you sit behind bars, I pray that you are tormented by the very memory of the words spoken to you by all of us brave women standing here today.
There is no therapy that will fix the evil that is deep inside you, and I know that all of us women will heal, but without your prayers. I know that God will heal me and help me survive and I will come out stronger on the other side.
After this is said and done you will be forgotten, but no one will forget how us women have gotten the strength to stand up and take you down. They won’t forget how we’ve changed the trajectory of the abuse in the sport of gymnastics, and I hope that God has mercy on your soul.
I am pleased to see that Larry is one step closer to spending a lifetime behind bars. He was allowed to prey upon children for more than 20 years, and he must be held accountable for these crimes.
Courtrooms are places where criminals face justice. In this case, justice can only be served by having Larry receive the maximum sentence. This will ensure that he’s properly punished for his despicable crimes, and will send a message to him and other abusers that the time is up. No longer will people like you get away with this kind of stuff.
This man should never be able to be around innocent children let alone people in the public ever again.
Thank you for allowing me to read my statement. Every time I’m able to speak up about my experience it makes me feel less like a victim and more like a survivor. I pray that my words have truly shown how this man has affected so many. Now it’s time for justice, and I can only hope that you see it through to the full extent. Thank you.
THE COURT: Thank you so much for being here. I truly want you to know that your voice does matter and that you are and always will be that responsible parent that he failed at being for his own children and for all of you. You speaking out protects your children and the children in all of our communities so it’s so important, and I know you were at two world championships. You are still a champion, and I have to say the biggest championship is this, speaking out publicly, protecting others.
There is no greater responsibility that we all have, and you as a champion recognize that.
If I could give each of you a gold medal, I would, because what you’re doing here is more important than the Olympics, and I know that was treasured and it was a goal for you and for all the girls, but putting someone like this behind bars, making sure that your voice is heard through legislators around the country and the world will be the gold that we all seek for the safety of all of our children, and so your voice has streams of gold through it, and that’s what I see, a champion for a lifetime, not just at one round of a game or a sport. I know you were dedicated but dedicated — as you just said, your voice will continue to speak. That’s the real goal.
MS. ANTOLIN: Okay.
THE COURT: Thank you so much. You are a pillar of strength, and facing him now means that you are healing, and your children can have a whole parent back, and that’s more important than anything, isn’t it?
MS. ANTOLIN: Yeah.
THE COURT: Thank you so much.
MS. ANTOLIN: Thank you.
