In January 2018, Emily Meinke was at home in Sarasota watching the news coverage of the sentencing of former U.S. Olympic doctor Larry Nassar, who had just been convicted after sexually abusing gymnasts and other female athletes for more than 20 years under the guise of performing medical treatment. One by one, 156 women—including several well-known Olympic gymnasts—came to the podium to share their victim impact statements.

Meinke, 44, had followed the case closely, after the first accusations against Nassar emerged in 2016, but when she recognized a former teammate from her childhood training days in the world of elite gymnastics in Michigan, she knew it was time to tell her story, too. A few days later, she was on a plane to Michigan to take her place in court in front of Nassar and the television cameras. “I knew it was going to be life-changing,” she says.

Meinke fell in love with gymnastics when she was three years old and competed at the pre-Olympic level by the time she was 10. One day at practice, she flew off the uneven bars and broke her back, but her coach encouraged her to continue training despite the injury. “The mindset of that culture was to push through the pain and do whatever it took to keep competing,” Meinke says. Eventually, a specialist recommended that she receive rehabilitation treatment from Nassar.

She and several of her teammates were among the first group of young athletes exposed to Nassar's sexual abuse. “It was very much a grooming situation,” Meinke says. “Our coach was intense and mentally tough on us, and Larry took on the role of the nice guy, asking us questions and telling us that everything was going to be OK— the perfect setup for gaining our trust.”

From the start, Meinke felt in her gut that something wasn’t right about the treatments, but she kept quiet. “At that age,” she says, “you don’t even know your body or think you should question adults.”

The abuse continued for 15 years, even after she stopped training, but she continued to see Nassar for treatment of her chronic back pain. “It had just become part of my life, and the lives of all of us who were his victims,” she says. “We were all having the same experience, but no one ever said a word.”

With the secret festering inside her, Meinke struggled with feelings of low self-worth in her 20s and early 30s, and admits that she self-medicated with alcohol and went through multiple abusive relationships. After she went public with her story, she worked with several therapists, but felt like she wasn’t getting anywhere. She finally had a breakthrough last year when she took a four-month leadership class. “It allowed me to make the decision that I’m not going to let [the abuse] define me,” she says.

The mindset shift from “victim” to “survivor” has been a key part of Meinke’s journey. She now uses her story as a platform to help change the system of reporting sexual abuse and assault, particularly in the world of elite athletics. She speaks to parents and athletes at local gyms, and she works as an advocate with Rise, a grassroots organization that works with state legislatures to establish a “Survivors’ Bill of Rights” for victims of sexual assault.

“I believe a lot of people don’t disclose an assault because the legal system is so intimidating and hard to navigate,” she says. “Our goal is to make survivors feel safe so that more people are held accountable.”

Now a mother to two young children, Meinke understands that healing is a lifelong process. “I value who I am and what I can bring to the world,” she says, “and I have the courage and confidence to stand by those who can’t stand up for themselves because I’ve been there, too.”