Aly Raisman Tells UWM What it Means to Be Experts at Our Own Experience

Gold medalist Aly Raisman visited UW-Milwaukee on April 19 to speak about what life is like now that she has the time to focus on herself and heal from the physical and emotional demands that come with being an Olympic athlete. 

Raisman is the third-most decorated gymnast of all time with six Olympic medals, one of only three U.S. gymnasts to make back-to-back teams in more than 20 years and a two-time Olympic team captain in both the 2012 and 2016 Games. After the 2016 Games, Raisman decided to use her leadership skills in a different way: fighting for systemic change within United States Gymnastics, the sport’s sanctioning body.  

In 2018, Raisman gave a statement during the sentencing of former USAG Team Doctor Larry Nassar after he was convicted of sexual assault. Hundreds of survivors came forward during his trial including some of Raisman’s former teammates and herself. 

Michigan Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Nassar to 175 years in prison in 2018. Nassar was already serving a 60-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and tampering with evidence charges in 2017. According to BBC, Nassar received up to 175 years from the state of Michigan when he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault against several young women. 

After years of seven-hour training days, pushing through injuries and watching USAG fail at keeping herself and her teammates safe, Raisman said she is finally taking time to heal herself. 

Prior to her presentation in UWM’s Union Ballroom, around 20 women gathered in the Alumni Fireside Lounge to have an exclusive first look into Raisman’s life post-Olympics. The women came from all over UWM: student-athletes, members of the Women’s Resource Center, victim service workers and members of Gamma Phi Beta.  

“I’m really living for me now,” Raisman said. “The simpler the things I do, the better I feel.” 

Raisman is seen both inside the gymnastics world and outside as a leader in the Nassar case. Not only did Raisman endure abuse at the hands of a trusted team doctor, but she also struggles today with unlearning concepts brought on by the sport itself. 

“Gymnastics is very heavily focused on how you look and your weight,” said Raisman. “It’s a perfectionist sport.” 

As a captain of the Olympic team, Raisman talked about the added pressure she was feeling along with her teammates, saying that without them it would have been difficult to make it through. She often reflects on how she and her teammates were able to still laugh and smile with each other during one of the hardest times of their lives. 

Nowadays, Raisman takes pride in finding the silver lining through the tough times, and according to her, she wouldn’t be where she is today without them. Instead of focusing on them all the time, Raisman uses grounding techniques to stay motivated. Although she restated several times that she is only human at the end of the day, she still tries her best to focus more on the smaller wins and alleviates her bad days with more work-life balance. 

Between being a dog mom to Mylo and getting outside despite Boston’s cold winters, Raisman has chosen to honor herself by learning to “just be.” According to Raisman, it can still be quite difficult to unlearn the abusive inner dialogue that developed through the perfectionist ways of the sport. 

Assistant Director of the Women’s Resource Center and event moderator, Justice Grau, found power in Raisman’s words as she sat on stage with her. 

“The year of treating yourself like a human,” said Grau, summarizing Raisman’s statements. 

Raisman nodded with Grau, acknowledging that for the first time in years, she could discover who she was as a person instead of a competitor. Grau noted to the crowd that Raisman was a leader, and then asked Raisman herself what advice she would give to young girls who also would like to be leaders one day. 

“Get to know yourself and figure out what makes you happy, what makes you sad, what makes you excited and what frustrates you,” Raisman said. “Learn who you are.”  

According to both Grau and Raisman, the takeaways were simple: get outside and unplug more when you’re feeling anxious, learn that you can’t pour from an empty cup and know that you’re an expert at your own experience.