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At the Heart of Goldopens with what, to many gymnastics fans, is a familiar sensation.
A gymnast stands alone at the end of the vault runway, silent and focused.
Just before she arrives at the springboard, you stop breathing, almost unconsciously.
Holding your breath wont change the outcome, but you do it anyway.
Theres Millers longtime coach Steve Nunno.
Theres the charismatic king of American gymnastics Bela Karolyi.
And, of course, theres team trainer Larry Nassar.
No, no, she says, shaking her head.
Where coaches wield enormous power and athletes are in constant pain.
[Miller] does not want to go in the back room with Larry Nassar.
Is that because hes a predator, or because shes been told over and over again to be strong?
We have no way of knowing, but its this open mystery thatI want you to think about.
In interviews with numerous survivors, we learn about Nassars method.
To create this whiplash of like, Oh, its everybody.
At the core of this film, though, are the survivors.
I mean it makes you wonder: What really is pain?
Carr includes footage of Hutchins training and competing for Twistars, and she was a truly gifted athlete.
Her suffering is no more tragic than that of a child without such talent.
He flew into a rage and threw her out of the gym for good.
She went to the emergency room, where an X-ray revealed that her shin was broken.
Like splintered, she tells Carrs camera.
It looks like a nail was hammering into my leg and it just kept splintering off pieces.
Because I just kept tumbling on it.
At the Heart of Goldis a film about girls and pain.
And then I think about the survivors and I think, How do they do anything?
Theyre these remarkable women who are having lives and having babies and having jobs and being advocates.
Like, you are the truest hero I have ever met.
