Another “Me Too” revelation has hit the US sports world.
According to USA Today, former U.S. bobsledder Aza Evans has filed a lawsuit against former team chiropractor Jonathan Wilhelm, alleging that he sexually abused her.
“In 2013 at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, Wilhelm groped my body and genitals under the guise of physical therapy,” Evans said, “and the sexual abuse was ongoing.” Evans was a bronze medalist in the women’s two-person at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Evans alleged that Wilhelm “touched my private parts on my inner thighs when I didn’t even tell him I had pain or anything wrong.” Evans is suing Wilhelm, the U.S. Bobsled and Keleton Federation, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. According to Evans’ lawyers, Wilhelm filmed Evans and her fellow national teammates naked on camera without their consent.
Sexual abuse in American sports has made waves before. Larry Nassar, a former team physician for USA Gymnastics, was arrested and sentenced to 360 years in prison in 2018 for repeatedly committing sexual offenses against more than 200 female athletes beginning in 1986. “I was sexually assaulted, too,” gymnast Simone Biles, who was recently selected to represent the United States, testified at the Nassar hearing in September 2021 굿모닝토토.