Christine Blasey Ford Resurfaces To Present ‘Sports Illustrated’ Award
Christine Blasey Ford — the California professor who in October testified before Congress that she was sexually assaulted in the 1980s by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — has resurfaced with her first public comments in months. Blasey-Ford appeared in a video for Sports Illustrated on Wednesday, presenting the magazine’s Inspiration of the Year Award to Rachael Denhollander, the gymnast-turned-attorney who was the first to announce former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault.
In the minute-long video, released on SI‘s Twitter account, Blasey-Ford shares that Denhollander will be receiving the award, one which will be presented at a ceremony on Wednesday night. Denhollander came forward in 2016, informing authorities that Nassar had assaulted her was she was 15 years old, sometime in proximity of the year 2000.
“I am honored to speak with you from afar about a woman I admire so much,” she says. “A woman who suffered abuse as a vulnerable teenage athlete who found the courage to talk publicly to stop the abuse of others. Her courage inspired other survivors to end their silence, and we all know the result. Rachael Denhollander, I am in awe of you, and I will always be inspired by you. In stepping forward you took a huge risk and you galvanized future generations to come forward, even when the odds are seemingly stacked against them.”
Blasey Ford goes on to state that “we can’t allow ourselves to be defined by the acts of others.”
In her first public statement since September, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford presents Sports Illustrated’s Inspiration of the Year Award to Rachael Denhollander https://t.co/2lBOB9nVDk pic.twitter.com/AjRYVYfOmS
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 12, 2018
Nassar — who worked for both the national gymnastics team and for Michigan State University’s athletic department — has been accused of abusing more than 250 women. He has been convicted of dozens of counts of sexual assault of minors as well as possession of child pornography, sentences that will almost certainly keep him in prison for life. Nassar’s many accusers included several of the gymnasts on the gold medal-winning U.S. gymnastics team from the 2012 Olympics.
Blasey Ford came forward following Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nominee had sexually assaulted her during a party when the two of them were in high school. Others accused Kavanaugh, but Blasey Ford was the only one to testify publicly. After she and Kavanaugh both testified before the committee, and after a week-long FBI investigation, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
The survivors of Nassar’s abuse, earlier this year, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from ESPN, at the annual ESPY Awards.
