Jade Carey, of the United States, poses after winning the gold medal for the floor exercise during the artistic gymnastics women's apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
American Jade Carey earned a gold medal in the floor exercise at the Tokyo Olympics after earning a score of 14.366 in the event finals Monday.
It's the first Olympic medal for Carey, who competed in the individual competitions this week but did not suit up for Team USA on the way to its silver medal.
Italy's Vanessa Ferrari earned the silver in floor after posting the best score in qualifying, while Mai Murakami of Japan and Angelina Melnikova of ROC each took home bronze after tying in third place.
A strong performance during qualifying helped Carey earn spots in the apparatus finals in both vault and floor, while she reached the individual all-around final after Simone Biles withdrew from the competition.
Biles also withdrew from the floor final, an event she won gold in at the Rio Olympics in 2016, as well as in five different world championships.
It left a wide-open competition for the gold medal, but it was Carey who took advantage after finishing in eighth place in both the all-around and vault finals.
The 21-year-old's routine had the toughest difficulty in the field Monday at 6.300, four-tenths higher than any other finalist and one-tenth tougher than her score in qualifying.
She handled it well with an 8.066 execution score and no penalties:
Ferrari had a higher execution score (8.300), but it wasn't enough to claim gold. The Italian still earned silver for her first Olympic medal in four trips to the Summer Games. She previously finished fourth in the floor exercise in both 2012 and 2016.
Melnikova shared a bronze for her third medal in Tokyo, also winning bronze in the all-around while helping ROC take the gold in the team competition.
Carey was still the star of the show Monday, getting a chance to celebrate her gold with her father, Brian Carey, who is also her coach:
It continues to showcase the United States' depth in gymnastics after winning silver in the team competition. Sunisa Lee won gold in the individual all-around and bronze in the uneven bars, while MyKayla Skinner took silver in bronze.
Lee and Biles will get a chance to add to that in the balance beam final Tuesday.
Olympic Women's Gymnastics 2021 Results: Simone Biles, USA at No. 2 in Qualification
Jul 25, 2021
Simone Biles, of the United States, performs on the floor during the women's artistic gymnastic qualifications at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 25, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Women's gymnastics at the 2021 Summer Olympics looks like it'll be a heated competition that could be separated by fractions of points.
Qualifications took place Sunday in Tokyo, and the United States is not the unbeatable juggernaut it appeared to be heading into the event. Neither is Simone Biles—a sentence that's even more surprising to type out than the previous one.
Here is a look at how all of the qualifiers shook out.
Women's Gymnastics Qualifiers
Team All-Around
1. ROC (Russia) 171.629 2. United States 170.562 3. China 166.863 4. France 164.561 5. Belgium 163.895 6. Great Britain 163.396 7. Italy 163.330 8. Japan 162.662
The United States may have their work cut out if they hope for a third straight Olympic gold medal.
The U.S. easily qualified for the team portion of the women's all-around finals but found itself in an unfamiliar position: second place. Russia's overall score of 171.629 topped the United States' 170.562.
While those scores do not carry over to the finals, it's a sign that the rest of the world may be encroaching on the United States' standing as the world's top power in women's gymnastics.
The United States was uncharacteristically sloppy throughout the qualification process, with a number of stars miscuing to take down their scores. Even Simone Biles went off the mat in the floor exercise and on the vault before later misstepping on her dismount in the beam.
"I feel we did a pretty good job. Obviously there are little things we need to work on, so we'll go back and practice and work on that, just so we can do our best performance at team finals, because that's what matters," Biles told reporters.
Biles was still the leader in the individual all-around despite her miscues and remains an overwhelming favorite to earn gold.
Teammate Sunisa Lee is right on Biles' heels in the all-around, with the 18-year-old positioning herself well for her first Olympic medal. Lee's excellent 15.200 score in the uneven bars trailed only Belgium's Nina Derwael, the 2018 and 2019 World Champion in the event.
"This was not the finals. This was getting into the finals. So this might be a great awakening for us and we'll take advantage of it," United States high-performance director Tom Forster told reporters.
Brazilian Rebeca Andrade continued her scintillating run from the Pan American Championships to sit second in the all-around. Andrade looks primed to compete with Biles for the overall championship, along with giving her a run for her money in the vault and floor routine. The 22-year-old dominated her subdivision in both of those events.
Russia will carry two medal hopefuls into the all-arounds with Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova.
Olympic Men's Gymnastics 2021: Qualification Scores, Results and Reaction
Jul 24, 2021
Tokyo , Japan - 24 July 2021; Nikita Nagornyy of Russian Olympic Committee in action on the Rings in artistic gymnastics qualification at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre during the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
With Friday's opening ceremony officially getting the 2021 Summer Olympics underway, the curtain raised for the the men's gymnastics competition at Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
Qualification is broken into three subdivisions, with the first beginning Saturday morning in Tokyo.
Japan, China and the Russian Olympic Committee set the standard in qualifying.
Russia bettered China in 2016 with a second-place finish. Nagornyy, Denis Ablyazin and David Belyavskiy are all holdovers from that squad, so it's not surprising to see the ROC hovering near the top of the team standings already.
ROC vs. China: through five rotations, 1.149 separates these two teams, with China holding the slight lead. Both nations are clearly giving it everything they have; the team final is going to be INTENSE.
Artur Dalaloyan is making quite the impact in his Olympic debut, especially considering he isn't too far removed from a tear of his Achilles tendon.
"It was not just a partially torn tendon, but severed tendon," he said to Scott Bregman and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in an interview for the Olympics official site. "A lot of media reported that I had just a partially torn tendon, that it is nothing scary. But when I got an MRI in the hospital, I was told I had a severed Achilles tendon and it needs a surgery."
Somehow, Dalaloyan is forging on.
Dalaloyan gets through his PH set. AA total of 85.957. He's going to make the finals on one leg basically.
Nagornyy was the gold medalist in the vault in the 2019 World Championships and helped the Russians dominate that portion of qualifying. With a score of 14.783, he led the way and was followed closely behind by Ablyazin (14.733).
For China, the parallel bars were where it did the most damage. Jingyuan Zou, Hao You and Ruoteng Xiao were the top three finishers.
While the competition is still young, the ROC and China are already shaping up to be medal contenders and appear to be safely through to the final given the gulf between them and the rest of the field.
Japan lived up to expectations on the strength of a terrific performance from Daiki Hashimoto, who moved to the top of the individual standings.
The United States didn't have a competitor finish inside the top 10, but all four of the Americans ranked inside the top 21. Brody Malone (No. 11 overall) and Samuel Mikulak (No. 14) earn the country's berths in the individual all-around final.
Brody Malone and Sam Mikulak will advance to the all-around final.
And with a few routines to go, it looks like four U.S. gymnasts will compete in event finals: Mikulak (parallel bars), Malone (high bar), Yul Moldauer (floor) and Alec Yoder (pommel horse).
While the Americans also safely qualified for the team final, they have a lot of ground to make up on the top three finishers if they're going to win a medal in Tokyo.
The top eight countries and 24 gymnasts move on to the respective finals. Team medals will be handed out Monday, with the individual contests to follow.
Sunisa Lee's Moment Must Wait
Jun 12, 2020
Where does the most exciting young gymnast in the United States keep her medals?
At the moment, they're spilled out on her bedroom floor. "It's like, kind of a mess," Sunisa "Suni" Lee says, looking around the room, the ceiling lined with bright purple LED lights. "My medal holder broke. Literally, the other day, I was sleeping and the whole thing just fell over. It knocked over. Because it was so heavy."
If this strikes Lee as a fitting metaphor—the medal holder buckling under the weight of her accomplishments—she doesn't show it. In fact, the 17-year-old St. Paul, Minnesota, native and Tokyo Olympics prospect doesn't seem too impressed by herself at all. Instead, on this day in late April, she exudes steadiness, speaking in the clipped, professional manner of a media-trained athlete, complete with aphorisms about going out there and doing your best.
She casually name-drops Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time ("She's a really cool person"), and says coming in second to her at the 2019 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships was "really cool." Competing at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was "really fun." If the medals weren't spilled all over the place, just from talking to Lee, you would have no idea how impressive she is or how much is at stake.
You wouldn't know that she competes with one of the most difficult—and thrilling to watch—bar routines in the world, one that could win Olympic gold next year in Tokyo. Or that in September, she came within four-tenths of a point of beating Biles in the all-around competition at the U.S. Worlds Trials—the closest anyone has come to the GOAT in nearly seven years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-1PgM-0DZ8
You wouldn't know that behind the understated exterior, Lee is carrying plenty of baggage. She should be preparing to become the first Hmong American to make it to the Olympics next month, appearing on every "Olympians to watch out for" list and getting approached by athletic brands for lucrative sponsorship deals. Instead, like the rest of us, she's at home, where she's helping her father, John, recover from an accident that left him paralyzed just two days before nationals.
While she waits, she deals with the uncertainty of what could happen between now and the new Olympic dates, in 2021, and whether she'll be ready to meet the expectations of her coaches, who've put in so many hours; her family, which has already bought plane tickets; her father, who is working hard to be well enough to go to Tokyo; and her Hmong community, which looks to her to represent them with pride.
You wouldn't know because Lee is good at what she does, and that means she's steady as a rock, with calloused skin too thick to rip. Biles says of Lee, "I admire her ability to take anything thrown at her."Â
STUTTGART, GERMANY - OCTOBER 13: Simone Biles of The United States celebrates winning gold next to silver medalist Sunisa Lee of The United States in Women's Floor Final during day 10 of the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at Hanns-Marti
But amid all of this, Lee is a 17-year-old. And occasionally, that breaks through—whether it's in the form of a messy bedroom, a chuckle at her family or a bright smile when she thinks of her best friends.
Like the rest of us, Lee is at home, and things are uncertain. It wasn't what any of us expected. But sometimes, despite the best-laid plans, things can get messy.
The video is from 2015, from a meet in USA Gymnastics' sub-elite HOPES division. In it, tiny 12-year-old Sunisa Lee starts her floor routine standing erect, focused, with her hands flicked back at her sides, her white and purple leotard shimmering under the arena lighting. You can hear her mom say, "Come on, Sunisa," softly from behind the shaky camera. Lee's music starts, and she springs into action, doing a roundoff to a back handspring into a tight double Arabian, landing lightly. She leaps and gambols from one end of the floor to the other, hitting her splits with ease. Her movements are precise, almost robotic, as studied as a ballerina's.
Lee competes with what she knows, what she's practiced in the gym countless times, running almost on autopilot. But in her head, something new is taking shape.
It is beginning to become clear to her that she might have what it takes to make it to the Olympics. "That's when the dream kind of emerged," she says now.
Longtime coach Jess Graba is in the frame, pacing the perimeter of the floor as Lee's career begins to flourish under his watchful eye. Graba still remembers the day Lee first walked through the door to his gym, six years before this video was taken. "She was a little crazy," he laughs. "She had so many weird habits." Like with many gymnasts, Lee's career began when her parents found they had a high-energy child who loved to flip. "She would start flipping outdoors," her mom, Yeev Thoj, says, "at the park and things like that, at a young age." At six, Lee was "addicted to doing backflips," Thoj adds. She watched YouTube videos of "all the super-good elites and Olympians," like Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, and did gymnastics at home.
With a small child who, in Graba's words, was "bouncing off the walls," Thoj had to find her a place where she could exert her energy safely. Enter Midwest Gymnastics, a highwayside facility in Little Canada, a tiny suburb of St. Paul. Graba, who started the gym in 1995, could see Lee's talent right away. He assigned her to a coach who helped train her out of the "weird habits" she'd developed from backyard gymnastics. Then he took her on as his own pupil. Lee has been working with him and his wife, coach Alison Lim, ever since. Now, she trains between 36 and 38 hours a week while maintaining a full high school schedule.
The time commitment means Lee's relationship with her coaches has grown airtight throughout the years—another staple of any elite gymnast's biography. "My wife and I basically spend so much time with her that she's kind of like one of our kids," Graba says. Lee agrees, saying Graba and Lim are "both like my parents." The first time Lee did a back handspring stepout to a back handspring to a full-twisting layout on a balance beam in one training session, in 2018, it was because they'd offered her a popsicle.
But this is where her story starts to diverge from even elite trajectories. Lee's high-difficulty routines and steadiness have made her dominant at a level that few gymnasts manage to reach. She won the 2015 HOPES Championship in Chicago at age 12, qualified for elite competition at 13 and made the junior national team at 14. At the next three national championships she attended, she climbed the ranks each time, placing 10th in the all-around in 2016, eighth in 2017 and third in 2018.
USA's Sunisa Lee performs to place second in the floor event of the apparatus finals at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, southern Germany, on October 13, 2019. (Photo by Thomas KIENZLE / AFP)
Behind the scenes, the elite lifestyle brought new challenges. Lee found her biggest supporters in her mom and especially her dad, whom Graba calls "the rock in the family" and whom Lee calls her "best friend." Even if her parents don't fully understand how good she is ("We don't know anything about Olympic potential or anything like that," Thoj says), they do everything they can to fund their daughter's dream—no small commitment considering that, according to a 2012 Forbes analysis, doing so can cost upward of $1,000 per month. To meet the costs in the past, Lee's family has hosted fundraisers, and Graba has waived gym fees. Her parents have also made difficult decisions about who gets to attend her competitions and who stays home with their three younger children.
But at 12, it was starting to look like all this investment would be worth it for the little athlete flipping in her white and purple leotard. Lee's dream was coming together.
She had no idea that, years later, just when it was on the verge of coming true, it would all start to unravel.
When Lee lies in bed at night trying to fall asleep, she's not in her bedroom. In her head, she's swinging on the uneven bars, back and forth like a pendulum, in front of thousands of people at the most important meet of her life. In a dark arena with a spotlight on the bars, all eyes are on her, and for those 30 seconds, everything is on the line.
"I like to visualize myself in big competitions, really nerve-wracking competitions," she says. Then, "When I'm at the competition, I know what to do."
Lee believes her grit in such situations is her greatest strength, citing it as the key to her success on bars, her best event. In gymnastics, the balance beam has the reputation as the most nerve-wracking, but Lee begs to differ. It's bars, she says.
"It's mentally and physically hard compared to the other events," she says. "When you're off [your game], you know the whole thing's going to be off, like you can feel it. ... You have to be really mentally strong from the beginning." So Lee works with Graba on mental workouts, writing down her routines and the words she says to herself during them. She does dance-throughs on beam and talks to herself. And when she's trying to fall asleep, she visualizes herself on the beam, the floor, the bars or the vault.
That explains why watching Lee compete, you would never know she was nervous. Despite being "just terrified" of vault, she's yet to have a bad one. She performs the Nabieva—one of the most difficult skills on bars—and catches it consistently. And while the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy competition in March 2019 was her first as a senior elite, she went ahead and won it. "Nobody really expected me to be on top [in Jesolo]," she said. "I was with such amazing seniors."
Nobody expected her to excel at nationals either, when the rookie would make her return to the all-around after spending five months recovering from a stress fracture in her ankle. The two-day meet was a huge step toward proving she was ready to make her first worlds team and becoming a contender for the Olympic team. But then, it happened. "Nationals was really hard because"—she pauses, her eyes searching while she does the math—"it happened like two days before I was supposed to leave."
"It" was something she never would have thought to prepare for.
Two days before her flight, Lee's father climbed a ladder to help a neighbor trim a tree. Then he fell, breaking several bones and injuring his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. Suddenly, the rock of the family and "the reason I do it all," as Lee has described him, was in the hospital undergoing eight hours of surgery.
In shock, Lee and her coaches debated whether she should sit out of the competition. "I really wanted to stay home with my dad," she says. It also could have made for a risky situation: A distracted gymnast can make dangerous mistakes. In the end, though, she decided to go. "I just told myself that I'd been working so hard and I wouldn't want to just give up on it," Lee says. "I just went to championships ... and competed for my dad and not for myself."
Lee mounted the beam for Day 1 of the competition, hitting her leaps as cameras flickered, the crowd cheered and music blared. On Day 2, she finished her final routine with a double tuck on the floor, saluted the judges and hugged her coaches, still wearing her poker face. She'd hit eight out of eight routines, placing second behind Biles. Few aside from Lee and her coaches knew at the time that she was putting on a show for her dad, who was watching from his hospital room along with her mom.
A month later, at the U.S. worlds team selection camp, she did it again, making the worlds team and trailing Biles by just 0.35, the closest anyone had been to the four-time Olympic gold medalist since 2013.
USA's Sunisa Lee (L, 2nd) and USA's Simone Biles (1st) pose on the podium after the floor event of the apparatus finals at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, southern Germany, on October 13, 20
Lee looks back on that national championships as the meet that stands out most in her career, calling it a "big steppingstone." "I kind of proved to myself that I can do anything I want when I put my mind to it," she says.
But the trial wasn't over: John developed pneumonia and had a long road to recovery ahead of him, one that would stretch the family's finances even further. They set up a GoFundMe account to cover medical expenses and lost wages. Meanwhile, after being so successful at nationals, Lee had something new to prove: Could she do it again, this time on the world stage?
There's a drawer in Lee's room that she rarely opens.
This is where she keeps her "unlucky" leotards—the ones she wore during a bad practice or a competition where she fell. The rest of them, including a "lucky" leotard from Simone Biles' line, are hung up in her closet.
"I'm very superstitious," Lee says. Like many athletes, she draws steadiness from routine and ritual. She works out at Midwest almost every day. Before every meet, she does her hair and makeup and has an adrenaline-boosting dance party—alone. And like every bar worker, she likes her bars a certain way. The ropes supporting the structure should be tight so she has more control and can better time the endless connections that are her calling card. The surface of the bars should be "grippy," she says. "I like them really wet and [with] a little bit of chalk, because it keeps it stickier." That's where her lucky pink spray bottle comes in handy. In every meet, you can see her grab it when she finishes her bar routine.
For now, though, America's second-best gymnast is recovering from a long stay on the bench, her routines put on hold. Midwest was closed for months before reopening this week. Like most of her teammates, this left her without the equipment she needs to stay in top shape.
And physically, Lee had nowhere to go but down. Just before the pandemic, she was nearly at her peak, ready to compete at the Stuttgart World Cup, an international all-around meet and Olympic qualifier, in March. She had prepared for months for the meet, and its cancellation opened the floodgates she had carefully put up. "When I found out that [Stuttgart] was canceled, I was at home..." She pauses, thinking. "I started crying when I found out; I found out through Twitter, actually." She texted Graba, who encouraged her to cry as much as she needed to. Then, the next day, she was back in the gym. "That obviously was really hard," she says.
Lee had a statement to make at that competition, with a brand-new bar routine and a game-changing skill to boot: a Nabieva with a half twist at the end. If she had completed the move successfully at Stuttgart, it would have been named after her. That routine was a tribute to her strong relationship with Graba. "Me and Jess came up with that routine together," she says, "so it was really special because we both wanted a skill named after me."
But Lee also wanted Stuttgart to be a redemption story. "I was really excited to compete in Germany again," she says, "especially after world championships." Six months earlier, Lee attended the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships there. After a standout season as a rookie senior elite, she was a no-brainer for the team, and despite still dealing with the fallout from her father's injury, she helped her team to a gold medal and qualified behind Simone Biles for the all-around final. But then, something went wrong.
When her lucky pink spray bottle fell apart at worlds, so did her routine in the all-around final. "Um, yeah," she says with a laugh. "I'm convinced that I fell on bars at worlds because my pink spray bottle is my lucky spray bottle and it broke the day before, so..." She's joking, but only mostly. After the bottle broke, she took the top off another bottle and put it on hers. "But it just wasn't the same," she says. When it was her turn to compete, she caught her Nabieva but botched the connection to her Pak salto, coming off the bar. Her chances of medaling in the all-around went from high to zero.
She set the record straight later in the competition, going on to win a silver medal in the floor final and a bronze in the bars final. But until she gets her next opportunity, Lee has unfinished business. And now, those opportunities keep getting pushed further and further away.
Like with Stuttgart, Lee found out the 2020 Tokyo Olympics had been postponed via Twitter. She took out her phone at the end of a day of practice, saw the news and cried again. "It's been our goal for 12 years now," she says.
The postponement was a tough pill to swallow for many Olympic prospects, but perhaps more so for gymnasts, who are at a particularly high risk for injury, growth spurts and burnout. Lee has dealt with her share of injuries—in fact, she credits her expertise on bars in part to frequent ankle issues—and knows that her chances depend on whether her physical and mental health holds out for another year. And the return to her previous level of fitness will be an uphill battle.
"Practice is gonna be so hard when I come back," she told her teammates on a YouTube live stream last month. "Like, I'm not even gonna know how to do anything." In a recent interview with the New York Times, she said Graba told her that for every week she's out of the gym, it will take three weeks to get back to that level. She'd been out of the gym for nine weeks.
Lee remains hopeful. The extra time could be a gift, allowing her to hone her craft before finally having the opportunity to reach "our" goal—the goal she's shared with her coaches for over a decade. It could also give her father the time he needs to recover enough to follow her to Tokyo. Nine months after the accident, John isn't walking yet, but he makes daily Zoom calls with his doctors and is determined to be well enough to make the trip, with Lee's help. "He's doing everything he can to get stronger and healthier so he can make it to the Olympics with me," she says.
If he does, and she makes the team, it could be the first time her entire family—her parents and her five siblings—sees her compete. Her siblings have never had the chance. "My whole family bought their plane tickets for the Olympics already," Lee says, laughing. "Everybody got their passports and everything."
It could be the first time a Hmong American makes the Olympics. Ever. Lee says she's received overwhelming support from the community in St. Paul, which has the country's largest Hmong American population for a city. Members of the community send her letters and have come together to fundraise for her meets. In the gym, little girls approach her and say she's the reason they started doing gymnastics. Representing Hmong Americans at the Olympics "would mean a lot to me," she says.
Now, uncertainty abounds over whether an Olympics will be held at all. If it is, Lee will have to stay steady for another year and make the team, which, thanks to the postponement, is now open for a new crop of athletes who wouldn't have been age-eligible in 2020. This creates even more competition for the four spots on Team USA.
But if Lee feels any pressure, she doesn't show it. And if she envisions more obstacles along the way to the Olympics, she doesn't seem too worried about them.
"What's one more year going to do?"
    Â
Jessica Taylor Price is a freelancer covering women's gymnastics and other sports. Her work has appeared in ESPNW, Deadspin and Teen Vogue. Follow her on Twitter: @jesstaylorprice.
Michigan State Says There Were 'No NCAA Rules Violations' in Larry Nassar Case
May 3, 2018
CHARLOTTE, MI - FEBRUARY 05: Larry Nassar stands as he is sentenced by Judge Janice Cunningham for three counts of criminal sexual assault in Eaton County Circuit Court on February 5, 2018 in Charlotte, Michigan. Nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 150 girls and young women while he was a physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. Cunningham sentenced Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison. He is currently serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Last month a judge in Ingham County, Michigan sentenced Nassar to an 40 to 175 years in prison after he plead guilty to sexually assaulting seven girls. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Michigan State University said it found "no NCAA rules violations" were committed in relation to the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.
On Wednesday, Matt Mencarini of the Lansing State Journal provided portions of a March 22 letter from MSU attorney Mike Glazier to the NCAA about the school's review:
"I trust that you will see that the University is in no way attempting to sidestep the issues facing it, and that if the University had any reason to believe the criminal conduct of Nassar also implicated NCAA rules violations, the University would accept responsibility in that area as well.
"However, after a thorough and analytic examination of NCAA legislation, and an application of the known facts associated with the Nassar matter to NCAA legislation, the University finds no NCAA rules violations."
Glazier noted there were 25 Michigan State student-athletes among Nassar's victims, including six since 2014, when the school conducted a Title IX investigation and cleared the now-disgraced doctor, per Mencarini.
NCAA bylaw 20.9.1.6, which focuses on the safety of student-athletes, was referenced in the letter but is "a guide and not subject to enforcement."
"Regrettably, we have learned that Nassar did not share the university's commitment and violated criminal law," the attorney wrote.
Nassar was sentenced twice on multiple counts of sexual assault, while he also received a 60-year federal sentence on child pornography charges. The sexual assault charges resulted in two prison terms in separate Michigan counties, each with a 40-year minimum.
Along with his work at Michigan State, which spanned nearly two decades, he also served as a team doctor for USA Gymnastics.
The scandal led to several resignations at MSU, led by school president Lou Anna Simon and athletic director Mark Hollis.
Former Olympic Coaches Bela, Martha Karolyi Sue USOC over Larry Nassar
May 1, 2018
FILE - In this June 29, 2012, file photo, Bela Karolyi, left, and his wife Martha Karolyi talk on the arena floor before the start of the preliminary round of the women's Olympic gymnastics trials in San Jose, Calif. The latest lawsuit filed Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, accusing Dr. Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics doctor, of sexually abusing a longtime member of the U.S. women's national team is the first to name renowned husband-and-wife coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, alleging they turned a blind eye to molestations. The Karolyis did not return messages seeking comment. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Former United States Olympic coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi filed a lawsuit against the United States Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics in April.
According to the Houston Chronicle's David Barron, the Karolyis are seeking upward of $1 million from the USOC and USA Gymnastics in part because they say they "should not be held responsible for any lawsuits stemming from crimes committed at their Sam Houston National Forest ranch by disgraced doctor Larry Nassar."
The Karolyi Ranch has housed the U.S. Women's National Team since 2001, and USA Gymnastics agreed to purchase it in 2016 for $3 million, per ESPN.com's John Barr.
But in the suit, the Karolyis say they deserve to be compensated by the sport's governing body after it reneged on its initial purchase agreement.
According to USA Today's Rachel Axon and Nancy Armour, the couple is seeking "stigma damages" that would account for "the loss of market value of the ranch as well as punitive damages and attorney fees."
As Barr noted, several former U.S. gymnasts have said that Nassar, who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct, abused them at the ranch under the guise of medical treatment.
Nassar is also serving a separate 60-year prison sentence stemming from child pornography charges.
US Gymnastics Coordinator Valeri Liukin Resigns amid Larry Nassar Scandal
Feb 2, 2018
Former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar listens during the sentencing phase in Eaton, County Circuit Court on January 31, 2018 in Charlotte, Michigan. Last week Nassar was sentenced in Ingham County to 40 years to 175 years in prison.
The number of identified sexual abuse victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has grown to 265, a Michigan judge announced Wednesday as a final sentencing hearing commenced. Prosecutors said at least 65 victims were to confront Nassar in court, in the last of three sentencing hearings for the disgraced doctor who molested young girls and women for two decades in the guise of medical treatment.
/ AFP PHOTO / JEFF KOWALSKY (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images)
Fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal continued Friday after Valeri Liukin resigned from his post as coordinator of the United States women's gymnastics team.Â
Liukin said in his resignation statement the "present climate" made it too difficult for him to remain with USA Gymnastics, via ESPN.com. Â
In a statement provided to USA Today's Nancy Armour and Rachel Axon, USA Gymnastics accepted Liukin's resignation.Â
"We thank him for his dedication and contributions to the sport of gymnastics and wish him well," the federation said. “We will begin the process to identify a national team coordinator for the women’s program."Â
Armour and Axon also noted Liukin wasn't named in any of the lawsuits involving Nassar nor has there been any "suggestion that he knew of any wrongdoing."
Mattie Larson, who won three medals at the 2010 United States Gymnastics National Championships, did mention Liukin's name during her victim-impact statement at Nassar's sentencing hearing on Jan. 23.
"It truly bothers me that one of the adults that treated me this way, making me feel completely invisible, is the new national team coordinator, Valeri Liukin," she said, via Chuck Schilken of the Los Angeles Times. "It troubles me that he is now in that position, and I hope for the sake of current and future national team members, that he has changed."
Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct during his time as a doctor at Michigan State and for USA Gymnastics. He is yet to be sentenced on a further three counts of criminal sexual conduct.
AT&T Suspends USA Gymnastics Sponsorship over Larry Nassar Abuse Scandal
Jan 23, 2018
In this Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, Dr. Larry Nassar, 54, appears in court for a plea hearing in Lansing, Mich. Nasser, a sports doctor accused of molesting girls while working for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University pleaded, guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault and will face at least 25 years in prison.(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
AT&T announced the suspension of its USA Gymnastics sponsorship Tuesday following the sexual abuse scandal involving former team doctor Larry Nassar.
"We notified USA Gymnastics today that we are suspending our sponsorship of the organization until it is re-built and we know that the athletes are in a safe environment. The terrible abuse suffered by these young women is unconscionable. We remain committed to helping these young athletes pursue their dreams and hope to find other ways to do so. We stand ready to step back in when USAG has fully addressed these tragic events."
USA Gymnastics‏ confirmed the resignation of three members of its executive leadership Monday:
USA Gym Board of Directors executive leadership - Chairman Paul Parilla, Vice Chairman Jay Binder & Treasurer Bitsy Kelley - tendered their resignations, effective Jan. 21, 2018. The Board of Directors will identify an interim chairperson until a permanent selection is named.
Aly Raisman is one of the several high-profile American gymnasts to come forward with statements of abuse about Nassar along with Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber.
She released a statement Monday night blasting the handling of the situation by USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee and calling for an independent investigation into the matter.
Meanwhile, Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in November and is currently involved in the sentencing phase of the case, which is scheduled to include victim-impact statements from 158 women, per Matt Mencarini of WZZM.
He faces a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison on those charges.
Nassar previously received a 60-year prison sentence in December on child pornography charges.
Michigan State President Called on to Resign Amid Larry Nassar Scandal
Jan 20, 2018
In this Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, Dr. Larry Nassar, 54, appears in court for a plea hearing in Lansing, Mich. Nasser, a sports doctor accused of molesting girls while working for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University pleaded, guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault and will face at least 25 years in prison.(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Michigan State Board of Trustees member Mitch Lyons called for MSU President Lou Anna Simon to resign Saturday amid the sexual abuse scandal related to former Michigan State physician Larry Nassar.
While the Michigan State Board of Trustees publicly supported Simon on Friday, Lyons made a statement of his own Saturday, according to ESPN.com's Dan Murphy:
"I do not agree with our statement of support for President Simon. As I expressed repeatedly to fellow board members during our discussion Friday, I don't feel that President Simon can survive the public outcry that has been generated by this tragedy and even less so after hearing the testimony of these brave survivors of Larry Nassar's abuse. I feel that our best recourse is for President Simon to resign immediately."
Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct in November with regard to incidents during his time as a doctor at Michigan State and for USA Gymnastics.
Per Murphy, over 150 women have said Nassar sexually abused them, and many of them have addressed him during a sentencing hearing this week.
Among them were women who said they told MSU officials about Nassar's abuse.
Murphy reported in December that in 2014 and 2015, Nassar was allowed to keep seeing patients for 16 months at Michigan State while under investigation for sexual assault.
On Saturday, the first woman to publicly say that Nassar sexually assaulted her, Rachael Denhollander, expressed disappointment with the vote of confidence Simon was given:
"I wish I could say that I was surprised, but this is part and parcel to the problems we have been pointing out for 18 months. No one at Michigan State has listened since 1997 and still no one is listening. It leaves me so concerned for that campus and for little girls everywhere. If they are unwilling to listen, this is not going to change."
Lyons said he doesn't believe Simon covered up Nassar's misconduct, but he thinks "the public has lost faith in her ability to lead."
Olympic gold medal-winning gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber are among the highest-profile women to say Nassar abused them.
In addition to the 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct Nassar pleaded guilty to, he was already sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges.
Aly Raisman Responds to Larry Nassar Sentencing in Players' Tribune Exclusive
Dec 7, 2017
Aly Raisman attends the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Awards at Kings Theatre on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
U.S. Olympian Aly Raisman, who said she was sexually abused by Larry Nassar throughout her training, responded to the former gymnastics doctor's sentencing and spoke out about her own history with sexual abuse in an article published on The Players' Tribune on Thursday.Â
"I am not a victim. I am a survivor," Raisman wrote. "The abuse does not define me, or anyone else who has been abused. This does not define the millions of those who’ve suffered sexual abuse. They are not victims, either. They are survivors. They are strong, they are brave, they are changing things so the next generation never has to go through what they did.
"There have been so many people who’ve come forward in the last few months. They have inspired me, and I hope, together, we inspire countless more. Surviving means that you’re strong. You’re strong because you came out on the other side, and that makes you brave and courageous."
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges earlier Thursday, per CNN's Elizabeth Joseph, Eric Levenson and Ray Sanchez. Raisman and five other women wrote letters that were supposed to be read at Nassar's sentencing until the request was denied by a judge.Â
She posted hers at the end of the article.
"Realizing that you are a victim of sexual abuse is a horrible feeling. Words cannot adequately capture the level of disgust I feel when I think about how this happened," the letter read in part. "Larry abused his power and the trust I and so many others placed in him, and I am not sure I will ever come to terms with how horribly he manipulated and violated me."
Nassar has also pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct and has been accused of molesting at least 125 girls and women, including Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney. He faces a prison term of at least 25 years for the guilty plea entered in court last month and will in all likelihood spend the rest of his life behind bars. His sentencing on those charges is scheduled for January.
Nassar was the team physician for four Olympic Games for USA Gymnastics and was also employed by Michigan State University until his September 2016 firing amid the charges.
