Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber opens up about the impact her gymnastics career and the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal have had on her throughout her life.
Wieber, 29, is a contestant on the third season of the Fox reality competition show Special forces: the toughest test in the world along with other celebrities including athletes Nathan Adrian, Cam Newton, Landon Donovan, Marion Jones and Golden Tate.
During the two-hour season premiere, which aired Wednesday, Jan. 8, Wieber suffered an anxiety attack and struggled to catch her breath during an intense exercise before regaining her composure and continuing to compete. Afterward, the former U.S. gymnast — who was part of the famed “Fierce Five” team that won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics — reflected on why she wanted to become an extreme reality competition competitor.
“It was really intense in gymnastics,” Wieber said. “The main motivating force was fear. We weren’t supposed to show emotion. And I think a lot of us realized after gymnastics that it has a lasting effect on us as people.”
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Jordyn Wieber on the third season of ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test’.
Pete Dadds / FOX
After the incident, the former athlete explained that she wanted to appear on the Fox program “to challenge myself in a new way that I haven’t been able to challenge since my gymnastics ended.”
“There were things going on behind the scenes that just made it harder to continue and compete… I was the victim of one of the most prolific sexual assault cases in the history of sports, the doctor was the abuser and he went to jail,” Wieber explained, gushing into tears during the episode.
When asked if she had “unfinished business” in her, Wieber nodded and whispered “yes.”
“I feel like a kid at the time and I’m like, ‘Wow, she was really…she was resilient,'” Wieber recalled. “Obviously there were highs, there were very low lows. My parents always told me that I became an adult at a young age and I still feel that way.”
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Wieber was one of several gymnasts who testified at Nassar’s 2018 trial, telling the courtroom that the disgraced former gymnastics doctor’s abuse began when she was 14, according to The Detroit Free Press.
Nassar was later convicted in 2018 of sexual assault after being accused by more than 150 women and girls and was sentenced to 175 years in prison, PEOPLE reported at the time.
The decorated Olympian retired from gymnastics in 2015 and took the head gymnastics coaching job at her alma mater, UCLA, before later becoming the coach at Arkansas.
Wieber married Chris Brooks, a fellow Olympic gymnast and gymnastics coach from Arkansas, last year after the couple started dating in 2016.
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Special forces: the toughest test in the world airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM ET on Fox.
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Source: HIS Education