Lawrence Gerard Nassar, born on August 16, 1963, is a former sports medicine osteopathic physician who gained notoriety as an American serial child molester and rapist. For 18 years, he held the position of the team doctor for the United States women’s national gymnastics team, a role he shamelessly exploited to perpetrate unspeakable acts of sexual assault against vulnerable children and young women. The shocking magnitude of his crimes and the subsequent cover-up led to the emergence of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal in 2015, revealing Nassar’s horrifying abuse of at least 265 young women and girls, many of whom were prominent Olympic and United States national gymnastics team athletes.
Born into a Jewish family in Farmington Hills, Michigan in 1963, Nassar’s early life appeared unremarkable. In 1978, at the tender age of 15, he embarked on a path that would grant him access to his future victims. Nassar secured a position as a student athletic trainer for the women’s gymnastics team at North Farmington High School. His older brother, Mike, who worked as an athletic trainer at the same school, played a significant role in recommending Nassar for the position. It was during this time that Nassar’s sinister inclinations first began to surface.
Completing his high school education at North Farmington High School in 1981, Nassar’s journey continued at the University of Michigan, where he pursued a degree in kinesiology. It was within the confines of the university that Nassar honed his deceitful ways. While studying, he seized opportunities to work with the university’s esteemed football and track & field teams, further solidifying his presence in the realm of sports medicine.
Nassar’s academic achievements and involvement with high-profile sports teams provided him with a façade of credibility and trustworthiness. These qualities would later become essential tools in his abhorrent manipulation of young gymnasts. Nassar’s predatory actions extended far beyond the realm of medical treatment, as he used his position of authority to groom, exploit, and sexually abuse countless unsuspecting victims. His crimes were meticulously disguised as legitimate medical procedures, leaving his victims traumatized and silenced for years.
The revelations surrounding Nassar’s monstrous acts sent shockwaves throughout the gymnastics community and the nation as a whole. They shed light on the systemic failures and complicity that allowed his abuse to persist for an extended period. Nassar’s victims, brave and resilient, finally found their voices, unmasking the darkness that lurked beneath the surface of an esteemed sports organization.
