UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports
August 29, 2018
By Jason Owens
On Tuesday, USA Gymnastics announced that it was hiring Mary Lee Tracy as the elite development coordinator for its women’s program.
During the early stages of the Larry Nassar scandal being exposed, Tracy, a coach and owner of the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, spoke on Nassar amid news that a coach who had worked at her gym in the early 2000s was found guilty of multiple sex crimes against children.
Tracy defended Larry Nassar in 2016
While she condemned that man, Ray Adams, in an interview with WCPO in Cincinnati, she spoke well of Nassar, who was later sentenced to 175 years in prison for serially abusing hundreds of young gymnasts over the course of several years.
“My Olympians have all worked with Larry,” Tracy told WCPO in the Dec. 2016 interview. “We were all defending him because he has helped so many kids in their careers. He has protected them, taken care of them, worked with me and worked with their parents. He’s been amazing.”
At the time of Tracy’s interview, more than 50 gymnasts and patients had accused Nassar of abuse.
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