US swimmer Margaret Hoelzer who won three medals in the recently concluded Beijing Olympics, has detailed about her being sexually abused when she was just five. The horrifying revelations came just today during an an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.
Margaret Hoelzer Sexual Abuse
“Some days I feel great about it, and I’m completely at peace with it, completely calm and ready to do this. Then, there are other days where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, do I really want to do this?”‘
The incident happened almost twenty years ago when Margaret used to live in Huntsville, Alabama with her family. The accused was a Playmate’s father and the abuse went on for two years until her family moved away. It was only when the little girl was eleven, she told her friend about the whole thing, and her family came to know about it. They called the police and the accused was arrested.
But, sadly, no formal charges could be brought on as the child had a ’still-developing’ memory and she wasn’t raped.
“I was very angry for a long time that nothing happened and he got off scot-free,” Hoelzer conceded. “In school, if you did something wrong you would get in trouble for it. You would go to detention or have your parents ground you. It was almost this mentality of, ‘How can you do something like that and have nothing happen?’ No community service. No fine. Nothing.
So, now that she’s told her plight to everyone… does she want to confront him?
No.
“I haven’t seen him in almost 20 years,” Hoelzer said. “I don’t even know if I’d recognize him at this point.”
All that she wants now is to help others who’ve been through the same painful ordeal that she did. The therapy did help her forget that man a little but, we know that no therapy is enough to do that. It must have took a very strong will-power for Margaret to concentrate on her swimming after all what happened and excel in the Olympics.
Her revelation will definitely make people to take a serious note of this problem in our society. There is only one thing which Hoelzer is scared about, which is also why she was quite all along.
“I think my biggest fear is letting my guard down,” she said. “What if no one cares?”
You can read her biography and see her photos here.
Photo: Swimming.About.com
September 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Darkness to Light is a prevention-centered, national non-profit organization. We have trained over 75,000 adults to prevent, recognize, and react to child sexual abuse since we opened in 2001. Our newest initiative, Stewards of Children, provides frontline training for organizations and corporations that serve children in 44 states nationwide; for states without local stewards, training is also available online.
Please consider Darkness to Light and our prevention resources.