UCLA athletes recall abuse by gymnastic doctor

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

UCLA gymnasts Kyla Ross, eft and Madison Kocian reveal they abuse they suffered.

IT TOOK YEARS before the awful truth dawned on UCLA gymnast Kyla Ross. Memories were repressed, but this year, she realized that she was among those hundreds of young women who were abused by former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar.
“Everyone copes in their own way,” said Ross, a member of the Fierce Five that stormed to gold at the 2012 Olympics.

Ross revealed that the abuse happened when she was 13-years old, and at the time she thought it was a legitimate treatment.

Larry Nassar

“It doesn’t matter how old you are and what happens to you. I’ve come to the point in my life this is something I want to share my story and move on,” Ross told the Associated Press.

Ross recently appeared on CBS' This Morning Show with fellow gymnast Madison Kocian, who won team gold in the 2016 Olympics, to discuss the sexual abuse they suffered as elite gymnasts. Ross' father is of African American and Japanese ancestry, and her mother is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent

Ross and Kocian have retired from elite gymnastics and now compete at the college level as teammates at UCLA. They helped their team to the NCAA championship last Spring.

The two student/athletes say they were in denial about their abuse. The turning point came in January as they watched nearly 200 women come forward to read victim impact statements to Nassar. NASA was found guilty last January and sentenced to 174 years in prison.

The two women listened to Jordyn Wieber, who competed alongside Ross at the 2012 London games and now serves as an assistant coach with the Bruins. Until she stood in front of Nassar, Wieber had never spoken publicly about her abuse, according to The Guardian.

“Just seeing the process through her view had helped me find my voice and be confident in myself and realize I was a victim,” Ross told The Guardian. “But we don’t want to be viewed as victims. This is something we have to grow through. Now we’re just trying to find our voice and help.”

With the revelations from Ross and Kocian, all five members of the 2012 Olympic team Ross, Wieber, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney have revealed they were abused by Nassar. Kocian became the fourth member of the 2016 Olympic team to come forward, joining Raisman, Douglas and Simone Biles. 

Ross and Kocian have both filed civil lawsuits against Michigan State where Nassar worked for decades and plan to do the same against the United States Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics.

They place part of the blame for their abuse on what they described as a toxic culture around the USA Gymnastics elite program that allowed Nassar’s treatment to run unchecked.

Like many of the athletes who have testified, the Ross and Kocian were too intimidated to question it the physical therapy. “We were told it was a medical procedure. A lot of us had back injuries or hamstring injuries, and (were told) that this was the only option because he was our team doctor. If we were to speak up, you probably wouldn’t have been in that consideration of making that [Olympic] team,” Kocian said.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement it is “heartbroken” that Ross and Kocian are among Nassar’s victims, adding “their powerful voices and stories will continue to be a basis for our future decisions.”

“It’s saddening to know a lot of gymnasts have gone through this and (USAG) has not reached out to see how we are doing as people, not as just as athletes but as individuals who grew up in the sport,” Ross said on CBS.

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'Edge of Seventeen:' Let Hailee Steinfeld be Hailee Steinfeld

Hailee Steinfeld and Hayden Szeto in 'The Edge of Seventeen.'

BY MOST ACCOUNTS, The Edge of Seventeen is a pretty good movie. It "takes teenage movies to a higher place," says the NY Times.

Hailee Steinfeld, one of her generation's best young actresses, gives life to angst-ridden Nadine Byrd, a social outcast at her high school, someone many of us can relate to.

Edge of Seventeen, released last week, belongs in the same category of other teen classics Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. 

However, the producers missed an opportunity to make it a great movie. One little twist would have put it in a category of its own and given it a certain gravitas that it lacks right now. 

That slight change? Imagine what could be done if Nadine's absent father ,Tom, was Asian/American. The central character would be a hapa, half-Asian and half-white, what Filipina/American Hailee is in real life. Just that simple twist would have given Nadine's social isolation another nuance besides just feeling unloved. That character could have been done without changing a line, although it would have made it even better if there was a line or two about being of mixed race.

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It also would have added another layer of complexity to Nadine's relationship with the guy who really likes her, Erwin, played by promising newcomer Hayden Szeto. Unlike the other Asian character of note in teen movies, the infamous Long Duk Dong featured in Sixteen Candles, Erwin is a handsome, polite Korean/American classmate who is not your stereotypical nerd. He is also the only other character who isn't white. Despite Nadine's self-deprecating and negative view of her personal life, Erwin is infatuated with her and she, well, she doesn't see him in that light. 

A line or two about the sensitive issue of AAPI girls' and AAPI boys' relationships would have hit a nerve with a lot of Asian/Americans.

Canadian Szeto has been named People Magazine’s 2016 New Romantic Lead in in its One to Watch issue.

It is up to bankable stars like Steinfeld - and we include Vanessa Hudgens, Keanu Reeves, in this category - to look for opportunities, or create opportunities, to play the mixed race people that they are in real life. 

We already know they can play white people, or at best, racially ambiguous characters and that's how they created their fan base. However, at this stage in their careers they can afford a little risk since they have more than a little influence. Why not ask the writers and directors to play characters that are more true to their hapa-selves? More than likely, it would make the story richer and the plot would not have to be altered much, if at all.

The audiences need to see them for what they are so they can see that their screen idols can also include Asian/Americans. In our drive to have the movies reflect the reality of the United States, the racial presence they can have onscreen is even more critical in these racially sensitive days when there are people who think that America should be home to only to pigment-challenged people.

Hailee, only 19, portrays Nadine as a real teenager, not a 30-something playing a teenager. It is her best role since she was nominated for an Oscar in True Grit. There's some buzz about another nomination for her role in The Edge of Seventeen.

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