Ten Years After Nassar, Gymnastics Is Still Failing Its Athletes
Finn's Take· TL;DR- Judge Aquilina, who oversaw Nassar's sentencing, says gymnastics still fails athletes in "almost every way" despite decade of promised reforms being mostly "window dressing."
- Survivors report institutional change hasn't matched the scale of abuse revelations, with athletes still fearing retaliation for speaking out about safety concerns.
- While some progress exists like reporting mechanisms and athlete advocacy groups, advocates demand concrete structural reforms like medical requirements and ending gymnast weighing practices.
A Reckoning That Never Fully Arrived
A decade ago, the exposure of Larry Nassar's crimes sent shockwaves through the world of gymnastics — and well beyond it. Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, was sentenced to up to 175 years in jail for the sexual abuse of more than 250 women and girls. The scale of the betrayal was staggering. Yet this week, as the sport's elite gathered for one of its biggest events, the central question being asked by survivors and advocates wasn't about medals — it was about whether anything has really changed.
The 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, running from October 17 to 25. But on the sidelines of the competition, a different kind of reckoning was taking place. In Rotterdam, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina — who presided over Nassar's sentencing — joined activists, survivors, and representatives of Gymnasts for Change International. The group's executive director, Claire Hefford, who survived abuse in sport, said survivors are still not always heard and that the scale of reforms does not match the scale of the revelations.
Window Dressing, Not Real Change
Judge Aquilina told Reuters that gymnastics is still failing athletes in "almost every way" despite reforms introduced in the decade since the Nassar scandal. She said changes made by governing bodies around the world amounted largely to "window dressing," and that athletes remained fearful that speaking out could cost them their place in the sport.
According to Aquilina, ten years have passed since Nassar's crimes were exposed, but there have been few substantial reforms — because money, medals, and fame are prioritized over children's safety, which she called a human right. Her words carry particular weight given what she witnessed firsthand. After Nassar pleaded guilty, Aquilina insisted that the court hear all 169 victim impact statements — an act that gave survivors a public voice many had never been afforded before. Now, she fears that voice is still not being translated into real institutional change.
Claire Hefford, CEO of Gymnasts for Change International, put it plainly: "We are still in a place where survivors' voices are not properly conveyed. The scale of reform has never matched the scale of the truths that were exposed. Within a fixed hierarchy, those who seek to create change from within the system inevitably face resistance."
Some Progress, But Not Enough
To be fair, the sport hasn't stood completely still. USA Gymnastics introduced changes after the case, including an Athlete Bill of Rights and safeguarding training for adult members. And Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch acknowledged there had been measurable progress in giving athletes a voice and providing ways to report abuse. "When the first whistleblowers came forward in gymnastics, not just in the United States, but all over the world, in Germany, in the UK, and other places, they were retaliated against," she noted. The fact that retaliation is now more openly condemned is itself a shift — but advocates argue it falls far short of a structural overhaul.
Aimee Boorman, Simone Biles' former coach, made similar observations during an interview with Dutch news outlet NRC during the Worlds. "A change is taking place in gymnastics, but fundamentally there is still a lot wrong," she confirmed. Even those closest to the sport's success stories acknowledge the culture hasn't been fully transformed.
The Road Ahead
Gymnasts for Change Canada representative Kim Shore called on World Gymnastics to undertake broad cultural reforms, naming possible steps such as banning the weighing of gymnasts and preventing athletes from competing without a medical certificate. These are concrete, measurable demands — the kind of specificity that advocates say has been missing from reform conversations dominated by vague commitments.
The discussion also took place as World Gymnastics prepares to appoint a new secretary general in the coming months, with Swiss Nicolas Buompane stepping down at the end of 2026 — a transition that advocates see as a critical window for change in leadership culture. Judge Aquilina's prognosis, however, remains sobering. "I don't think we're going to see a change in my lifetime. I think it's going to take decades," she said. For the hundreds of survivors who already waited years just to be believed, that timeline is not an abstraction — it is a continuing injustice.