Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman was snubbed by new U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive officer Sarah Hirshman Tuesday after a two-hour Senate hearing on Olympic sex abuse, USA Today reported. Hirshman later asked Raisman for a "redo."
Raisman, who has become one of the faces of the Olympic sex abuse scandal that led to the imprisonment of former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar, was reportedly rebuffed by Hirshland as Raisman attempted to introduce herself.
The gold medal-winning gymnast in March sued the USOC in March, charging in court papers that the sports federation knew or should have known that Nassar was molesting her and other young athletes under the guise of medical treatment, NBC News reported.
"I said, 'Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me," and she kind of ignored me, but I was like, 'excuse me,'" Raisman told USA Today of her encounter with Hirshland after the hearing. "So she looked at me because I wasn't going to let her leave.”
"I said, 'I'd really like to introduce myself to you.' She's like, 'I've been instructed I can't talk to you.' So I said, 'You can't just say Hi to me?' She said no and then rushed out," Raisman continued.
The Senate hearing was Hirshland's first public appearance after being named head of the USOC, USA Today said. She is not expected to formally take her seat until Aug. 20 and was in no official capacity at the hearing.
Hirshland told USA Today the exchange with Raisman was a "misunderstanding" and sent an apology to the gymnast via email.
"It was a sincere apology and my sincere ask for a redo," Hirshland said.
In her lawsuit against the USOC, Raisman, a veteran of the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, charged that Nassar had unfettered access to her and other elite athletes as they trained at the Karolyi Ranch owned by famed coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi and at competitions around the world, NBC News said.
Raisman claimed in court papers that a USA Gymnastics trainer was sometimes in the room with Nassar as he penetrated the girls with bare hands for what he described as intravaginal therapy.
In February, Nassar was sentenced in an Eaton County, Michigan case to 40 to 125 years in prison in a sex abuse scandal that spready to his former employer Michigan State University, along with USOC and USA Gymnastics.
More than 260 women and girls charged that Nassar sexually abused them. In a separate Michigan case, Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years for similar charges and 60 years in federal prison for child pornography crimes.
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