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1963-present
Who Is Larry Nassar?
Larry Nassar is a former doctor and athletic trainer who had a decades-long career at USA Gymnastics before being convicted of sexual assault and possession of child pornography in 2017. His crimes include abusing patients under the guise of performing medical treatments. A 2016 investigation by the Indianapolis Star contained two women’s accounts of being assaulted by Nassar, after which more victims, including Olympic gymnasts and the daughter of family friends, came forward. Although prior investigations into Nassar’s actions had been dropped, this time he was charged and convicted. Before he was sentenced in January 2018 following a guilty plea, more than 150 women and girls delivered victim-impact statements in court. This testimony, which went on for seven days, was seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement. Today, Nassar is serving an effective life sentence at a federal penitentiary in Florida, where he was stabbed by another inmate in July 2023.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Lawrence Gerard Nassar
BORN: August 16, 1963
BIRTHPLACE: Farmington Hills, Michigan
SPOUSE: Stefanie Lynn Anderson (1996-2017)
CHILDREN: 3
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Leo
Early Life and Education
Lawrence Gerard Nassar was born on August 16, 1963, in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He attended North Farmington High School in Michigan, where he began working with the school’s gymnastics team in 1978. Nassar graduated high school in 1981, then attended the University of Michigan. He majored in kinesiology and received his degree in 1985.
Nassar then enrolled in Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1988. After twice failing biochemistry, he convinced officials to let him switch from a four-year to a five-year course of study. He graduated from medical school, where he also worked with student athletes, in 1993.
Career at USA Gymnastics and Elsewhere
Nassar continued working with gymnasts after high school, and by 1986, he was hired as an athletic trainer for USA Gymnastics’ national team. He became the national medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics in 1996. That same year, he was on hand to tend to Kerri Strug after she vaulted with an injured ankle during the Olympic Games. In August 1997, Nassar was named as an assistant professor at Michigan State University at its College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Nassar often tried to ingratiate himself with gymnasts. He reportedly took the time to listen to them and could be counted on to provide treats to girls who weren’t getting enough to eat while training. Nassar was a part of USA Gymnastics until 2015 when the organization let him go following a report of abuse. Although USA Gymnastics did inform the FBI about the allegations concerning Nassar, they didn’t object when Nassar publicly stated that he’d willingly retired. Nassar still worked at Twistars Gymnastics Club and Michigan State University after leaving USA Gymnastics.
Getting Away with Sexual Assault
Working in a physically demanding sport where injuries are common, Nassar told ailing female gymnasts that he could assuage their aches and pains via what he termed “intravaginal adjustment.” While pelvic-floor manipulation can be a legitimate method of treatment, Nassar’s approach—not using gloves, never obtaining informed consent, and utilizing this treatment even for knee and ankle injuries—defied accepted practice and served as a way for him to molest patients. He would rub breasts and genitals and use his ungloved fingers to penetrate a patient’s vagina and anus.
Many of the women and girls Nassar abused accepted his explanation that he was performing legitimate medical treatments and therefore didn’t question his behavior. He sometimes assaulted patients with parents or others nearby, which made it difficult for some to believe that abuse had taken place. (Nassar had convinced so many people of his good intentions that when the accusations against him first came out he received messages of sympathy and support.) Gymnasts recounted assaults by Nassar at his apartment, in his office at Michigan State University, at the Twistars Gymnastics Club in Michigan, and during gymnastics events, including the Olympics. It’s estimated that Nassar molested one victim more than 800 times.
Nassar’s elevated position in the world of gymnastics also made many gymnasts reluctant to speak out. Some worried that denouncing Nassar could end their careers. The institutional culture of USA Gymnastics seemed to be more focused on preserving the organization than protecting gymnasts.
Yet Nassar’s abuse was reported—and ignored—on multiple occasions. A gymnast shared concerns with her coach in 1997 but was encouraged not to file an official complaint. In 2004, a police report was filed about Nassar, but he used materials he’d created to convince an officer that he’d been providing medical care. A Title IX investigation at Michigan State University in 2014 also didn’t stop Nassar. And the FBI investigation that began in 2015 dragged on for months, allowing Nassar to abuse an estimated 40 victims while it was in process. A Senate probe later stated that the FBI “failed to pursue a course of action that would have immediately protected victims in harm’s way,” according to the 2020 book Start By Believing: Larry Nassar’s Crimes, the Institutions that Enabled Him, and the Brave Women Who Stopped a Monster.
In September 2016, the Indianapolis Star published the accounts of two women who accused Nassar of sexual abuse, as part of an ongoing investigation into and coverage of USA Gymnastics’ failures when handling such claims. After more victims came forward, Nassar’s days as a free man were numbered. He was arrested in early November on child sex abuse charges and separately indicted on federal charges that December.
Victims
Former gymnast Rachael Denhollander was the first woman to publicly identify herself as a victim of Nassar’s abuse via the Indianapolis Star. Soon, others spoke up, either to the police or the public, about their experiences with Nassar. Several Olympians, including Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Gabby Douglas, have acknowledged that they were subjected to abuse by Nassar.
In addition to gymnasts, Nassar assaulted other athletes he treated at Michigan State University. He also abused women who’d come to him for help with regular aches and pains. In 1998, he began molesting the 6-year-old daughter of family friends. She has stated that the abuse continued on a nearly weekly basis until she was 12.
Although victims who first spoke up about Nassar were ignored or dismissed, all had the opportunity to speak at his sentencing hearing in Ingham County in January 2018. Over the course of seven days, 156 emotional victim-impact statements were shared.
Michigan State University, which employed Nassar for years, set up a $500 million fund for his victims. In the years since his crimes became public, more than 500 people have accused Nassar of abusing them.
Investigation and Trial
While investigating the sexual assault accusations against Nassar in September 2016, police took custody of external hard drives found in his trash (these were only discovered because garbage pick-up was late that day). They turned out to contain more than 37,000 images of child pornography, which resulted in federal charges against Nassar. He submitted a guilty plea to three child pornography charges in July 2017. Later that year, he received a sentence of 60 years for these crimes.
On November 22, 2017, Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Michigan’s Ingham County Circuit Court. This was followed later in the month by a guilty plea to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Eaton County Circuit Court in Michigan. In January 2018, he received a sentence of 40 to 175 years in Ingham County Court. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told him, “I’m a judge who believes in life and rehabilitation when rehabilitation is possible. I don’t find that’s possible with you. I just signed your death warrant.” Another sentence of 40 to 125 years was later delivered in Eaton County. Nassar’s federal prison sentence must be completed before he serves time for his other convictions.
Nassar in Prison
Following his sentencing, Nassar began serving his prison time in Eaton County, Michigan, then at the Milan Federal Correctional Institution near Ann Arbor.
In February 2018, Nassar was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona, a high security prison in which a majority of the inmates are sex offenders. Brian David Mitchell, the preacher convicted of abducting Elizabeth Smart, is notably housed at the facility. However, court filings by Nassar’s lawyers indicate he was assaulted at the prison weeks later in May after being released into the general population. Nassar subsequently moved to the Oklahoma Federal Transfer Center.
The Washington Post reported in August 2018 that Nassar was then transferred to Coleman II U.S. Penitentiary in Wildwood, Florida, where notorious mob boss Whitey Bulger also served time. On July 9, 2023, an inmate at Coleman attacked Nassar, stabbing him in the back, neck, and chest. Nassar was reported to be in stable condition the day after the altercation.
Justice Department Investigation and Response
In July 2021, the inspector general of the Justice Department released a scathing report saying the FBI was delayed by more than a year in properly investigating claims against Nassar, allowing him to abuse at least 70 additional young athletes. According to the report, FBI officers in the Indianapolis field office failed to investigate allegations reported by USA Gymnastics “with the utmost seriousness and and urgency” required, and the special agent in charge of the office gave false statements in an effort to cover up errors.
Thirteen female athletes assaulted by Nassar filed a claim seeking $10 million each from the FBI in April 2022. That June, a group representing 90 young women—including Biles, Maroney, and Raisman—also filed claims seeking more than $1 billion in damages from the bureau. Although lawyers have reportedly indicated the FBI is open to settling the lawsuits, as of July 2023, they were still ongoing.
Wife and Children
On October 19, 1996, Nassar wed Stefanie Lynn Anderson, a fellow athletic trainer. The couple had three children: girls in 2001 and 2004 and a boy in 2006. After his history of serial abuse became public, Anderson filed for divorce.
One of Nassar’s daughters has autism. He set up the Gymnastics Doctor Autism Foundation to support gymnastics programs for children with autism and other special needs.
Podcast and Documentaries
Nassar’s case has been covered in the podcast Believed and in two documentaries: HBO’s At the Heart of Gold from 2019 and Netflix’s Athlete A (2020).
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