McKayla Maroney says she was forced to compete with a broken foot in the 2012 Olympics, claiming Larry Nassar ‘lied’ to the coach about the injury

• McKayla Maroney said in an Instagram story that her foot was broken at the 2012 London Olympics.
• Maroney said Larry Nassar "lied" to the US women's gymnastics coach to downplay the injury.
• Speaking about the Olympics, Maroney tweeted that she thinks "people don't understand how terrible it's set up for the athletes."
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Former Team USA gymnast and Olympic medalist McKayla Maroney said Sunday in an Instagram story video that she was forced to compete at the London Olympics on a broken foot after Larry Nassar lied to the coach about the injury.

In light of the Tokyo Olympics vault finals, which were held on Sunday, Maroney – who won a silver medal at the London Olympics in the same event – took to Instagram to share "the behind the scenes of what ACTUALLY goes down during the Olympic Gymnastics event finals (specifically vault finals)."

"I think a lot of people don't understand how terrible it's set up for the athletes," Maroney tweeted.

-mckayla (@McKaylaMaroney) August 1, 2021

On Instagram, Maroney shared a series of videos in which she said Larry Nassar, the former US women's national gymnastics team doctor who was sentenced to 175 years in prison, knew that her foot was broken around the time of the 2012 Olympics but hid it from the team's coach. Nassar was convicted in 2018 on charges of child pornography and sexual assault of minors after hundreds of women – including Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Simone Biles, among others – accused him of sexual abuse.

"You guys know I competed on the Olympic team as a vaulter. I also came in ready for floor, but as soon as I got to London I broke my foot," Maroney said in the video.

She said in the video that in the past, she "would never blame anyone" for the foot injury, saying she felt like it was her "body's fault." But now, Maroney said in the video, she believes her broken foot was due to the fact that then-coach Márta Károlyi had the team start training soon after the team arrived in London. Maroney claimed that Károlyi had her complete three balance-beam routines despite being "jet-lagged" and not competing in the event.

"And that's when I broke my foot because I was dizzy as hell," Maroney said in the video. "Like, I felt terrible. I looked at my coach before the beam routine like, 'Really? You're going to make me get on this thing right now? I feel like s---.'"

During the 2012 Olympics, multiple reports said that Maroney's toe was broken - not that she suffered a broken foot. At the time, The New York Times reported that Károlyi denied that it was broken and said Maroney's toe was "bruised" and "strained."

Maroney continued in her Instagram video, saying that Nassar knew about Maroney's broken foot but lied to Károlyi, telling her that it wasn't broken. Maroney added that Nassar "was the one who helped with the X-rays and passed along the information."

Later in the video, Maroney said that Károlyi later yelled at her over the injury.

Maroney continued in the video, saying that competing at the Olympics with her injury was "risking the rest" of her gymnastics career. Following the London Olympics, she said she underwent "miracle surgery" after doctors said she may never do gymnastics again. Maroney said the surgery was a success.

Representatives for Maroney and for USA Gymnastics, respectively, did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.