Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Athlete A’ on Netflix, a Crucial Documentary About Courageous Gymnasts and the Culture of Abuse They Survived

Netflix documentary Athlete A isn’t about a sports scandal — more like a gross moral failure. The film emphasizes the voices of Maggie Nichols, Rachael Denhollander and Jamie Dantzscher, three gymnasts among dozens who came forward to bury sports doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar — along with Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, the Olympic Committee and maybe even the FBI — in shame. Directors Bonnie Cohen (The Rape of Europa and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power) and Jon Shenk differentiate their film from 2019 HBO doc At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal by focusing on how Indianapolis Star investigative reporters broke the story in 2016.

ATHLETE A: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Maggie Nichols was a gymnastics wunderkind. She competed on a national level at age 10, and by 18, seemed to be a shoo-in for the U.S. Olympic team. In 2016, she placed sixth at the Olympic Trials, in spite of a knee injury that required surgery earlier that year. Yet she didn’t make the Olympic team, consisting of five gymnasts and three alternates. She quit the USA Gymnastics (USAG) program — then dominated her NCAA competition for the next four years as a member of the University of Oklahoma gymnastics team.

The fact that she was never an Olympian seems illogical at best, if not patently absurd. But the explanation is simple. She was being punished for being the first gymnast to report USAG team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. USAG, Michigan State University — Nassar’s employer — and the Olympic Committee referred to her as “Athlete A”  in a coordinated effort to sweep the allegations under the rug.

Concurrently, just as the 2016 Summer Olympics geared up in Rio de Janeiro, three Indianapolis Star reporters and their editor published an investigative story about USAG’s failure to report allegations of sexual abuse by coaches to authorities. The journalists’ phones lit up. Their email boxes filled. Women were coming forward with their stories, and key among them was Michigan gymnast Rachel Denhollander, who was the first to mention Nassar as a perpetrator of these atrocities.

Athlete A then details how USAG honchos Steve Penny and Rhonda Faehn worked for years to cover up Nassar’s acts in an attempt to protect their organization’s squeaky-clean public image, which earned millions of dollars in endorsements. The “beloved” doctor with a goofy, outgoing personality inflicted significant harm on gymnasts at the Texas training ranch overseen by Olympic gold-winning coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi, whose tacit physical and psychological abuse of minors — ranging from name-calling to slaps in the face and near-starvation diets — created an environment that enabled Nassar to get away with it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Athlete A is a less-sensational cousin of Surviving R. Kelly and Leaving Neverland, docs that also cover high-profile sex-crime cases. But it has more in common with the rigorous, even-toned journalism of true-crime films such as I Love You, Now Die or the Paradise Lost series.

Performance Worth Watching: The film includes powerful scenes of survivors giving impact statements during Nassar’s sentencing. The footage speaks for itself.

Memorable Dialogue: “I didn’t know much at 15, but I did know that abuse victims aren’t treated well.”—Rachael Denhollander

Our Take: Cohen and Shenk adopt the calm, even-handed tone found in the IndyStar journalists’ diligent news pieces, and provide an empathetic platform for Nichols, Denhollander and Dantzscher to share their experiences. The documentary’s goal is obvious, but effective: to break down barriers of fear, intimidation and silence that so often inhibit stories of abuse from reaching just, moral conclusions. Its descriptions of abuse are horrific.

Athlete A is a thorough and effective summary of the expose that brought down Nassar and shed light on USAG’s ethical corruption. (The story of Michigan State University’s complicity could be a sequel.) It explores the power dynamics of sexual abuse, and how girls were manipulated to believe such cruelty was the price they needed to pay for international Olympic glory. It examines how Nassar plied young gymnasts with kindness in the face of the Karolyis’ cruelty. It paints a big bullseye on Penny and the Karolyis and righteously indicts them for their duplicity. (Penny currently faces evidence-tampering charges; Bela Karolyi retired from coaching in the late 1990s; Marta Karolyi retired, probably not coincidentally, in 2016.)

Outside interviews with survivors, the filmmakers tie in contextual commentary from key figures. Geza Pozsar, a longtime choreographer for the Karolyis, testifies to their mistreatment of gymnasts. Writer and former gymnast Jennifer Sey reframes past USAG Olympic victories within a noxious culture; cue footage of Kerri Strug’s famed gold-winning vault on an injured ankle, with Nassar being the first to rush to her side. Former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis explains how she fought for survivors’ impact statements to be part of Nassar’s plea deal.

Underneath all of this, the film regularly looks over the shoulders of Indianapolis Star journalists Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark Alesia, Tim Evans and Steve Berta as they perform the type of industrious, continuous legwork necessary to rip the lid off society’s ills. Without their work, Nassar might still be abusing young girls. Without their work — and documentaries like this — the culture of abuse might not be progressing toward enlightenment and justice.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Athlete A is a tough watch. But that’s just an indicator of the importance of its story, and its underlying message of truth and empowerment.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Watch Athlete A on Netflix