Opinion: Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal rocked world beyond gymnastics in decade's darkest moment

Christine Brennan | USA TODAY

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Most of us first heard Larry Nassar’s name well into the decade, when one courageous young woman, then another, then several more, came forward to say that their trusted team doctor had sexually abused them.

The stories came from the famous and the unknown, Olympic gold medalists and those whose careers ended in high school. With steely clarity in the midst of withering personal agony, the women, most still quite young, painted a terrifying picture of the decade’s darkest moment by simply telling the truth about what Nassar did to them.

When their stories were pieced together, they presented a breathtaking conclusion: this was the worst sexual abuse scandal in sports history, and the worst scandal of any kind in the history of the Olympic movement.

When future generations look back at the 2010s, and read about what we have come to call the USA Gymnastics/Michigan State scandal, they might ask many of the same questions we asked ourselves as the news began to break in the USA TODAY Network in the late summer of 2016:

How could something of this magnitude happen? Why didn’t some of the victims speak out at the time? Where were the parents, the sport’s leaders, the university’s leaders, the police?

When the answers to those questions came, they didn’t just form a reprehensible portrait of the betrayal of hundreds of young lives. They also formed a blueprint for an unprecedented call for change that is being heard to this day in the corridors of Congress, the offices of law enforcement and the hallways of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the national governing bodies for sports in America.

Top officials and coaches have been toppled in disgrace. Laws have been changed. Athletes’ voices are not only being heard, they are finally being sought out and prized. Trouble still exists in the sports world, certainly, with institutions to this day still more worried about protecting their brand than athletes' safety and well-being, but change is coming.

That is the overwhelming legacy of the nightmare of Nassar, forged entirely from the bravery of the young women he sexually assaulted for years under the guise of medical treatment.

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That courage reached a heart-wrenching crescendo in Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s Lansing, Michigan, courtroom in January 2018, when one former gymnast after another – more than 150 in all – appeared at Aquilina’s invitation to read their victim impact statements at Nassar’s sentencing hearing, which was broadcast live on CNN and other cable outlets, and led the network news.

Going last was Rachael Denhollander, the former gymnast who contacted The Indianapolis Star in 2016 to tell reporters what Nassar had done to her. Her action not only brought a sexual predator to justice but also started a movement.

“So, I ask, how much is a little girl worth?” Denhollander said that day. “How much priority should be placed on communicating that the fullest weight of the law will be used to protect another innocent child from the soul shattering devastation that sexual assault brings? I submit to you that these children are worth everything. Worth every protection the law can offer. Worth the maximum sentence.”

Aquilina listened. She sentenced Nassar to what amounted to the rest of his life in prison.

Six months after they spoke in that Michigan courtroom, more than 140 of Nassar’s victims filled a stage in Los Angeles to stand as one to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2018 ESPY Awards. As the audience stood and held back tears, Nassar’s first victim, Sarah Klein, spoke.

“Make no mistake," she said, "we are here on this stage to present an image for the world to see, a portrait of survival, a new vision of courage.”

Nassar brought an unspeakable horror into all of those athletes' lives. But at that moment on the ESPY's stage, the gymnasts stood as fierce and proud examples of the best of all of us. They had fought back. They were no longer victims. They were survivors.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Christine Brennan on Twitter.