The 2020 Netflix documentary delves into how reporters at the Indianapolis Star broke the story surrounding the sexual abuse of at least 500 young athletes by USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. The report spearheaded the case against Nassar, who, in 2018, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for multiple sex crimes. The year earlier, he had been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and evidence tampering charges. In their reporting, the Star journalists — Mark Alesia, Tim Evans, and Marisa Kwiatkowski — also revealed a much larger cover-up that took place at the executive levels of the sport. They found that USA Gymnastics not only protected Nassar, but allowed coaches who were accused of abuse to move from gym to gym without reporting the allegations to authorities.
Nassar's victims included Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Maggie Nichols, the titular "Athlete A," the moniker used to protect her identity during the investigations against Nassar. The documentary shows how USAG continuously put winning gold above the safety of their young athletes. It was the journalists, survivors, and lawyers that were able to fight back against the corruption that put so many young women's lives at risk; a triumph that came at an unnecessarily high cost.
