Netflix has released the first trailer for its new documentary Athlete A, which chronicles how a 2016 article in the Indianapolis Star about USA Gymnastics protecting coaches accused of abuse led to the downfall of Larry Nassar.
Per Netflix:
“This film follows the IndyStar reporters as they reveal the extensive cover-up that allowed abuse to thrive within elite-level gymnastics for more than two decades, the attorney who is fighting the institutions that failed these athletes, and most importantly, the brave whistle-blowers who refuse to be silenced.”
This isn’t the first documentary that’s been made based on Nassar’s crimes. Last year, HBO released Erin Lee Carr’s At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal. As with that film, Athlete A seems committed to letting survivors tell their own stories. As a review in EW put it:
“What co-directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk rightly focus on here is not the man himself but the young women — Olympians, gold medalists, and local amateurs among them — he preyed on,” she wrote. “In the process, it grants them something Nassar never did: the right to be not merely victims or objects of prurient fascination, but whole human beings with their own stories to tell.”
“Athlete A” refers to gymnast Maggie Nichols, whose coach submitted the first report of Nassar’s sexual abuse to USA Gymnastics officials. After Nichols, more than 300 other women would eventually come forward to accuse Nassar of assault, including Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman.
Athlete A premieres on June 24.