Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney filed a lawsuit Wednesday against USA Gymnastics, alleging that officials for the national governing body paid her to sign a confidential financial settlement to remain silent on the sexual abuse she suffered by team doctor Larry Nassar.

Maroney has accused the USOC of covering up its knowledge of Nassar’s misconduct as part of a “culture and atmosphere that conceals known and suspected sexual abusers” in papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, which name Nassar, the US Olympic Committee and Michigan State University, Nassar’s longtime employer, as co-defendants.

The Californian claims that USA Gymnastics paid her the settlement, in violation of state law, in exchange for her silence. While the court filings do not specify the amount of the settlement, the Wall Street Journal reports Maroney received $1.25m last year, citing sources familiar with the deal.

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The lawsuit also alleges USA Gymnastics actively sought the confidentiality agreement, which carried a penalty of $100,000 if violated, so “it could further conceal and shield from public scrutiny, outside investigation, and law enforcement, the true nature of Nassar’s horrific sexual abuse of minors”.

Maroney’s attorney, John Manly, told ESPN that the gymnast signed the non-disclosure agreement willingly because she was suffering from psychological trauma and needed it for “lifesaving psychological treatment and care”.

“They were willing to engage in a systematic cover-up of the entire matter,” Manly told the network.

In the suit, Maroney claims the USOC “concealed its knowledge of Nassar’s sexual misconduct with minor children and, ultimately, misdirected the United States Senate into believing that [the USOC] had only failed to protect minor gymnasts through lack of oversight”.

Nassar, the longtime US women’s gymnastics team physician who has been accused of sexually abusing more than 140 women and girls under the guise of medical treatment, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a Michigan court last month. He was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison in a separate case regarding child abuse images.

In October, Maroney, who helped the US gymnastics team known as the Fierce Five to a gold medal at the London Olympics and added an individual silver in the vault, became the most prominent name to come forward when she said that she was sexually abused by Nassar from the age of 13 until her retirement from the sport last year.

“People should know that this is not just happening in Hollywood,” Maroney wrote in a lengthy Twitter post inspired by the #MeToo movement, the hashtag campaign that’s encouraged victims of sexual harassment or assault to step forward with their stories. “This is happening everywhere. Wherever there is a position of power, there seems to be potential for abuse. I had a dream to go to the Olympics, and the things that I had to endure to get there, were unnecessary, and disgusting.”