Athlete A Documentary Review: A must-watch for gymnastics enthusiasts!

I really enjoyed watching Athlete A, which is a Netflix documentary about how the USA Gymnastics corporation covered up sexual abuse cases and promoted mentally damaging training regimens for years. Back when the Larry Nassar allegations were making front page headlines, I honestly didn't dig deep into the full story, despite being a fan of Olympic/NCAA gymnastics. This documentary was engaging and educational, and I feel like I have a much more thorough understanding of how Larry Nassar, and on a much larger scale, USAG, wronged the young women they were supposed to be supporting. So, if you’re a fan of Olympic gymnastics, you should really watch this documentary! Sometimes it's important to hear the painful details in order to truly understand the extent of the abuse. I felt myself getting emotional all over again, watching those women standing at the podium in the courtroom and facing their abuser. I also really liked getting to know more about Maggie Nichols, and I hate how the USAG basically treated her as a problem that could just be brushed away. She should've gone to the Olympics!!

Also as a side note...it really freaks me out to watch an athlete getting injured in gymnastics... There's never any blood but like that saying goes, it's the injuries that you can't see that are often times the most serious. There was a scene in the beginning of the documentary that showed a girl land wrong on a vault and the crunch sound of her knee, and I felt my heart twisting. I was on edge for the rest of the documentary every time they showed a gymnast performing a skill, worrying that she would land poorly and break something. Watching this documentary was kind of stressful...but still worth it!