The Indianapolis Star showed Simone Biles the 'magnitude' of gymnastics abuse. How it got the story.

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The Indianapolis Star showed Simone Biles the ‘magnitude’ of gymnastics abuse. How it got the story.

Local newspapers may be struggling, but they are still publishing journalism that makes a difference

By Elahe Izadi
Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT

As Simone Biles delivered stirring testimony before a Senate committee about her abuse at the hands of the doctor Larry Nassar, she blamed a system that failed to protect her and later kept her in the dark, even as she competed at the summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In fact, the Olympian said, “I didn’t understand the magnitude of what all was happening until the Indianapolis Star published its article in the fall of 2016 entitled ‘Former USA Gymnastics doctor accused of abuse.’ ”

That article — in which former gymnast Rachael Denhollander publicly accused Nassar of abuse — was part of an investigative series from the Indianapolis newspaper called “Out of Balance.” The project, which brought accountability where there had been none, all began with the Star acting swiftly on a tip.

In March 2016, Indianapolis Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski had been reporting on the problem of schools failing to report abuse when a source told her to look into a similar issue with USA Gymnastics, which is based in Indianapolis.

“Marisa took off one day from the newsroom, and you could tell something big was going on,” recalled fellow reporter Tim Evans. She got on a plane to Georgia the same day and came back with thousands of pages of documents related to a lawsuit filed there by a former gymnast against both a coach and USA Gymnastics. She had moved quickly, concerned the court was about to seal the records in the case.

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By Elahe Izadi
Elahe Izadi covers media for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2014 as a general assignment reporter, and has covered pop culture, Congress, demographics and breaking news. Twitter https://twitter.com/ElaheIzadi