Former US gymnast Mattie Larson delivered gut-wrenching testimony Tuesday on how she was sexually abused by Larry Nassar, telling the disgraced sports doctor: “I can’t even put into words how much I f—king hate you.”
Larson, who was a member of the US National Team, was among the scores of women to detail to a Michigan court — during Nassar’s marathon sentencing for sexual assault — the trauma she endured.
“Coming here today was no easy feat for me. I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it, but I realized I’m not the little girl I used to be,” Larson told the court.
Larson spoke of how she was molested by Nassar at the scandal-plagued Karolyi Ranch in Texas — a US Olympic training facility that is now under investigation.
Last week, USA Gymnastics announced it ended its relationship with the ranch.
“Larry, my coaches, and USAG turned the sport I fell in love with as a kid into my personal living hell,” said Larson, who explained how she once intentionally hurt herself by banging her head against a bathtub “to get out of the abuse I would receive at the ranch.”
Larson described how remote the ranch was and how it lacked cell service, calling those factors “no mistake.”
When in Minnesota for her first US National Championships at age 14, she recalled how she was “not able to compete because of an extremely painful hip injury” and she was treated by Nassar.
“My injury was very close to my pelvic bone, so when Larry put his fingers in my vagina for the first time, I thought it was some internal treatment,” she said. “That was the only injury I ever had that was remotely close to my genital region … no matter what Larry was treating me for over the years, his fingers always seemed to find his way inside me, never using gloves.”
Addressing Nassar, who sat at the defense table, Larson said: “Your priority should have been my health, yet your priority was solely to molest me.”
She added: “Larry, you were the only one I trusted. In the end, you turned out to be the scariest monster of all.”
Larson called out USA Gymnastics trainer Debbie Van Horn and said Horn “would be in the room many of the times Larry abused me.”
Eventually, Larson said, “I spiraled into a very intense and destructive eating disorder” that involved taking laxatives.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who is overseeing the case, called Larson a “champion.”
“Your words are gold,” Aquilina said.
Former USA Gymnastics team member and national champion Jessica Howard had a victim impact statement read on her behalf in court Tuesday.
Howard, who was not present, wrote in the statement how she too was sexually abused by Nassar starting when she was 15 years old.
“For years I cut myself off,” the statement read. “For years I bled, for years the anxiety was crippling.”
With Post wires