Told she resembled a puffy marshmallow — and molested by notorious team doctor Larry Nassar — elite gymnast Maggie Nichols developed an eating disorder as a teen.
In a new memoir, the now 26-year-old relates her struggles during those years and her journey toward healing.
As a member of USA Gymnastics, the teenage Nichols trained alongside teammates Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and other acclaimed athletes to head to the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
“I worked so hard to get so strong,” she told People. “I look back and I want to hug that girl, because she was tired and hungry and hurting.”
That girl needed a hug back in 2015, when Nichols was training at the famed Karolyi Ranch in Texas.
“One day a coach put me in front of a mirror and asked what I saw,” she wrote in her memoir, “Unstoppable!”
Unsure of what the coach was looking for, she replied, “I don’t know. Me?” according to an excerpt of her book in People. That wasn’t it, though.
“No,” the coach said, according to Nichols in her memoir, released Tuesday. “You’re puffy. You look puffy. Like a marshmallow.”
Until then, she had been fine with her body image. But the coach made her run on the treadmill for 45 minutes a day after the team’s grueling practice, something Nichols did for nearly a year.
She was also being molested under the guise of treatment, like hundreds of young gymnasts over the years, by Nassar. He eventually pleaded guilty and is serving a lifelong prison sentence.
Nichols was the first gymnast to come forward about Nassar, anonymously as “Athlete A” in 2015, possibly costing her a spot on the Olympic team. She later opened up about her experience in the Netflix documentary of the same name about the scandal.
Amid all the pressure, Nichols became obsessed with her weight and with food intake. And so were her coaches. She recalls getting scolded by coach Marta Karolyi for grabbing a banana. Her fatigue from undernourishment led to injuries, which is what got her assigned to Nassar, she told People.
“My weight was something I could control. It was all I thought about,” she told the publication. “I did everything to fit myself into the body they wanted.”
Now she is engaged to be married, has earned a master’s degree in educationand is a personal trainer. She also established the Maggie Nichols Foundation to advocate for victims of abuse.
