Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman says that although former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar received a heafty sentencing, there are more bodies to be held accountable.
Raisman stopped by the “Today” show for an interview with Hoda Kotb Thursday to discuss the trial and sentencing of Nassar. When Kotb asked her if justice has been served, Raisman said, “No. I mean it’s not something where you just instantly feel better.”
“We need to hold these organizations accountable: USA Gymnastics, United States Olympic Committee, MSU, they need an independent investigator,” she continued.
Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison on Wednesday, after Judge Rosemarie Aquilina heard more than 100 testimonies from his victims. Raisman was one who gave a testimony, and her fiery statement has been a focal point of the case.
Lou Anna Simon, president of Michigan State University where Nassar was an employee, resigned Wednesday in the wake of the scandal.
“This is bigger than Larry Nassar,” Raisman said on “Today.” “We have to get to the bottom of how this disaster happened. If we don’t figure out how it did, we can’t be confident that it won’t happen again.”
“In that moment, I almost felt like I was going to compete,” Raisman said of her moment in court. “In the Olympics, you block out everything, and in that moment, I blocked out everything. I forgot that people were watching me, I forgot the media was over there, I forgot that Larry was right there, and I just spoke and I felt like I really had to be strong.”
She said the aftermath has been difficult: “I will be honest, I was sick, I almost passed out, I had the worst headache for hours… It’s hard to put into words but it makes me literally sick — all the stress and the trauma of everything. But for that moment I had to be strong.”
Watch Raisman’s full interview above.