Texas governor orders investigation into gymnast training center

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the state’s top criminal investigations unit to determine whether Larry Nassar abused some of his victims at Karolyi Ranch, an elite gymnastics training facility north of Houston. Several of the former doctor’s victims said he abused them during visits to the facility. A Michigan judge sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison last week for sexually abusing female gymnasts who came to him for treatment for sports-related injuries. Although Nassar only pleaded guilty to abusing seven girls, more than 150 eventually came forward to accuse him. Abbott called the victims’ accounts “gut-wrenching.” Karolyi Ranch, founded in 1984 by Olympic gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi, hosted training camps for aspiring Olympic gymnasts for more than a decade. Since 2001, the facility served as the official U.S. Women’s National Gymnastics Training Center. It became a U.S. Olympic Training Site in 2011. USA Gymnastics severed ties with the facility earlier this month amid the Nassar scandal. The Karolyis are facing a lawsuit claiming they knew about Nassar’s abuse and failed to stop it.