Athlete A: Netflix’s finest production of the year.
Sagnik Kumar Gupta
“Athlete A,” is the latest investigative documentary by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s about the sexual-abuse scandal that struck the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team in 2016. It chronicles the abuse that Dr. Larry Nassar, the osteopathic physician who served for 29 years, as the doctor for the USA Gymnastics women’s team had meted out to the young gymnasts and how the USA Gymnastics turned a blind eye to it. According to a 2016 investigation undertaken by the Indianapolis Star, it was revealed that D. Larry had abused hundreds of young women athletes during the course of conducting routine examinations and physical-therapy sessions.
Athlete A isn’t a new story,not something we haven’t heard of. Netflix themselves have produced many documentaries regarding sexual predators in the recent past. This seem to be a new genre — and it should be one as sexual offence has been normal and rampant for so many years. It speaks to us again and insists us to introspect within ourselves and our long established corrupt institutions in order to revamp them and establish a safer environment.It is high time now.
Athlete A looks at USA Gymnastics and their main aim was to win trophies at any cost and earn revenue from advertisement. Young girls were scouted at a very young age and were subjected to constant mental, sexual and physical abuse. These girls were placed into a system where the behavior against them was being made to feel normal, psychologically inflicted by their dreams,undermined and used by the adults who were meant to protect them.
The “Athlete A” in question is Maggie Nichols , a prominent gymnast who was mysteriously and strangely left out of the 2016 Olympic team after accusing Dr. Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. Her dreams of competing in the Olympics was crushed by the corrupt system that supported and sheltered predators. Her case is intertwined with those of Jessica Howard, Jamie Dantzcher and Rachel Denhollander and many such “ survivors” who helped the Indianapolis Star newspaper publish the first investigation into the case.
I myself didn’t have too much information about the sport but the creators do a wonderful job in creating the backdrop and slowly unfurling the story at a steady pace which keeps us engaged . The creators take us on a journey where we travel with the Indianapolis star investigative journalist team comprising of Steve Bert, Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark Alesia, and Tim Evans as they navigate and try to unearth the case in order to bring justice to the “survivors”.
In spite of being a story about how sexual predators have ruled and scarred young lives for decades there is hope in the film. The scenes where survivors come forward and speak about the crimes done against them you feel that its justice will not be denied to these brave women. The court scene where the women testify one after another is especially a very powerful and emotional scene even though the details of the court proceedings could have been shown a bit more.
Athlete A is a very uncomfortable watch and it should be .Gymnastics is a sport filled with glamour and flair and one can only wonder the amount of hard work that has gone in to producing such a spectacle. It also speaks about how important of responsible free press in our society as it can bring about massive change. The main objective that the film tries to promote and speaks about is that a safe environment for nurturing kids should be our first priority , an environment where they can be at peace mentally and physically.
“Athlete A” is now available on Netflix .
