Mental, emotional scarring is presented in this horrifyingly real look into the world of professional sports, more especially the women's Olympic Gymnastic Team. Young women taken advantage of, many being familiar faces seen in previous years of the Olympics, over the course of years by an athletic director who groomed and molested young girls before they knew what sexual contact was all about.
HBO produced this intense and detailed video documentary of real life events, spanning the course of twenty years, that led to the eventual capture and conviction of an athletic physician that spent many hours alone with young female athletes, while he was still having the strong support of their parents during rigorous injuries that were sustained during the training environments. This documentary is a sad look into how things that can look so innocent, but can delve youngsters into a mental darkness that they may never recover from again; even seeing the vile monster being put away for the rest of his life wasn't enough to sate the athletes from the evil that continues to haunt them today.
The video documentary delivered the evidence coldly, through the testimony of several female athletes that sustained abuse during their early careers as Olympic hopefuls. What's even more horrifying are the accusations that head coaches turned a blind eye to the claims of sexual abuse when they were confronted by the young athletes about what was happening behind closed doors and the basement of the team physician's home. It isn't until one brave little girl stood up and said, "enough is enough!" - that got the ball rolling towards justice and an eventual conviction.
I highly recommend you take the time to watch this documentary, whether your child is entering the early years of partaking in athletics, acting, music, or any other sport or type of entertainment where they may be left alone with someone who "claims to be a professional" but has ulterior motifs to their positional power.
⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 of 5 Stars)
