“When I first started to speak out, I was so surprised and so devastated by the amount of people who would stop me and tell me they could relate to my experience. I struggle to find a female in my life who hasn’t had a bad experience with a man,” Aly Raisman said.
On Oct. 2, Raisman, a six-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time gymnastics team captain, took the stage at Scripps Presents to share lessons from her athletic journey and trauma healing process. Raisman came forward as a survivor of sexual abuse in 2017 and is now an avid advocate for sexual assault survivors.
“She was one of my favorite people I’ve listened to speak,” Winnie Macaulay SC ’28 said. “She was a really engaging speaker, and she had an extremely powerful message regarding the importance of advocacy and her experience as a survivor.”
Macaulay attended the event along with the entire CMS women’s lacrosse team.
“Speaking for my team, we were all extremely impacted by her message,” Macaulay said. “I now understand more about how I’ve been feeling coming into college athletics, and the importance of prioritizing my own mental health and valuing what I put in every day at practice.”
Raisman began the talk by describing the lessons she took away from her 11-year professional gymnastics career. She emphasized how important practicing patience and cultivating passion have been throughout her life, noting that she always performs best when she isn’t putting too much pressure on herself.
“I wasn’t always the kid that you would pick out to say she’s going to be the best, and when I was six years old, I was the worst in my class and had to repeat another year,” Raisman said. “I just loved [gymnastics] so much. There’s a lot of magic in loving something and being passionate about it.”
When asked to give advice to her younger self, Raisman underscored the difficult process of learning to trust her own judgment and cultivate her inner voice, regardless of others’ opinions. Gymnastics is notoriously a high-pressure sport. Raisman, like many gymnasts, was raised to prioritize external approval, which often meant questioning her own intuition and suppressing her inner voice.
“I’ve had to learn since my gymnastics career how to reflect and make sure that I’m living in alignment with my values and what feels right to me,” Raisman said. “Recognizing that something feels off [is important] even if other people are telling us we’re wrong.”
In November 2017, Raisman revealed that Olympic team physician Larry Nassar had sexually abused her during “therapeutic” treatments. Following testimony by Raisman and other survivors, including record-breaking gymnast Simone Biles, Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
For over thirty years, Nassar took advantage of his position to systematically abuse at least 156 women. When Raisman and the others’ stories went public in 2017, the survivors suddenly had millions of people all over the world discussing their intimate sexual trauma.
Raisman described this day to the captivated audience in Garrison Theatre, detailing the severe physical effects of the publicization of her story – for hours, she endured an unbearable migraine.
In telling her story, Raisman noted how devastatingly common abuse is, and emphasized that speaking out can be extremely terrifying. There is always the risk of retaliation and the fear of not being taken seriously.
“I wish that we lived in a world where more people felt safer speaking out,” Raisman said. “But I also wish we lived in a world where people didn’t have to.”
In the wake of this experience, she learned the importance of setting up her own boundaries and taking care of her body.
“Healing is a roller coaster,” Raisman said. “There are moments where I feel more relaxed and there are moments out of the blue that trigger me. I’m working hard on recognizing that if I have a bad day or a bad week, I’m not going to feel like this forever.”
Attendee and Scripps alum Kathleen Muniz SC ’97 was particularly struck by Raisman’s mental health journey.
“It just speaks to her desire to seek help and get better, and that you have to be able to advocate for yourself and be open to talking to so many people and find the right outlet to help heal you,” Muniz said.
Raisman underscored how much stress can impact one’s health and believes that we don’t need a valid reason to be tired. In fact, after competing at the Olympics, there were periods of time when she experienced severe brain fog and would be unable to walk for periods of time.
“Most people are fighting their own battle and that is exhausting,” Raisman said. “Especially when we live in a world where not everyone is supportive when people talk about their trauma, their stress, their mental health.”
Hannah Conte CM ’26 appreciated how Raisman supported and validated others’ experiences.
“I love that her emphasis was on kindness and how she wants to change the world and have everyone be empathetic and kind,” Conte said.
Being kind doesn’t always mean performing grand gestures. As she reflected on her retirement from gymnastics, Raisman emphasized that constantly striving towards high achievement can be a trap — sometimes it’s better to aim to create smaller, positive impacts in your community.
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