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Olympic gymnast opens up about coach's abuse
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Laurie Hernandez competing at the 2016 Rio Games. Weeks after winning a gold and a silver at the Olympics, she told her mother about the abuse she was suffering.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
NEW YORK - For the longest time, Laurie Hernandez, an Olympic champion gymnast, thought she was crazy for thinking her coach had emotionally abused her.
When that coach screamed at her for the tiniest of mistakes or lapses in focus, calling her weak, lazy or messed up in the head, with an obscenity for emphasis, she rationalised all top coaches pushed their young gymnasts that way.
