Netflix's Athlete A documentary is a fierce indictment of the USA Gymnastics' predator-enabling culture

Salon.com

"How did former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar get away with it?" asks Mary Elizabeth Williams. "How did one of the country's worst sexual abusers, operating over a period spanning at least two decades, evade justice for so long? The answer, as the new Netflix documentary Athlete A hauntingly illuminates, is simple. He had help. Abuse is such an isolating experience for the victims, and abuse thrives on that sense of isolation. 'No one else is saying what you're saying.' That's what one of Nassar's victims heard when she came forward to a coach. It took an entire system, carefully crafted to physically and psychologically break down young girls, for Nassar to thrive. It took an astonishing number of individuals willing to ignore their complaints, to overlook their suffering. And it took another massive group of people — relentless reporters, determined lawyers and members of law enforcement, and fed up family members and survivors — to finally achieve some vindication."