Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Q+A: TASHA SCHWIKERT MOSER:

After Nassar, Las Vegas native Olympian-turned-lawyer has young athletes’ back

schwikert moser

Jae C. Hong / AP, file

Former Olympic gymnast Tasha Schwikert Moser leaves a conference room after speaking to reporters Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Schwikert Moser, a member of the 2000 Olympic team and one of hundreds of athletes sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, has been appointed to USA Gymnastics board of directors, a position created as part of the settlement between the organization and survivors of Nassar’s abuse.

Tasha Schwikert Moser may only be less than a month into her tenure as a board member for USA Gymnastics, but the Las Vegan and 2000 Olympic bronze medalist has lofty goals for reducing abuse in the sport she dearly loves.

Schwikert Moser, 37, joined the board for the sport’s national governing body this month as part of its bankruptcy settlement following the 2018 sentencing of team doctor Larry Nassar, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing more than 300 female athletes spanning parts of three decades under the guise of medical treatment.

Many of the abuse survivors, including former Olympic medalists McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber, alleged that USA Gymnastics as well as other high-ranking coaches and officials helped perpetuate and abetted their abuse.

As part of the bankruptcy settlement, USA Gymnastics’ board of directors must consist of at least one member of the Restorative Justice Task Force, a coalition of former USA gymnasts that suffered abuse while a part of the program.

Enter Schwikert Moser, who after her storied gymnastics career graduated from the Boyd School of Law at UNLV, is now a practicing attorney and full-time activist for sexual abuse survivors and gymnasts. She’s married to former UNLV basketball player Mike Moser.

Her goal on the board, she says, is simple: make sure nobody ever again faces the dangers she and hundreds of other gymnasts did, while empowering athletes to reach their dreams.

We spoke with Schwikert Moser about her term with USA Gymnastics. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

What have you learned so far on the job, and what has it been like?

Well, it’s been about a week. And I’m on the board, but I’m also on a committee that was formed as a result of the bankruptcy settlement, called the Restorative Justice Task Force. So ... it’s been pretty busy. You know, I came into this position knowing that there was a lot of work to be done. At the end of this month, there is an in-person board meeting in conjunction with a USA Gymnastics-hosted event in Des Moines, Iowa, so I look forward to meeting everyone in person and just learning more about everyone’s role on the board, and learning more about the current state of the organization.

So between the spot on the board, and then on the survivors’ task force, is that a weird dynamic, trying to navigate both parties’ interests while serving in these dual capacities?

So we’ve talked about that, and if any issues arise that would be a conflict, I would recuse myself. But because we settled the bankruptcy case, and, obviously, I’m here because everyone else on the Restorative Justice Task Force is there because we care about the sport, I don’t anticipate too many conflicts. I’d like to think at this point, we’re all on the same team, and we’re all going in the same direction together. So hopefully, there aren’t going to be too many issues where it’s adversarial. I just think that now that we’ve settled, we’re working hard to make sure we’re all on the same page and just doing what’s in the best interests of the athletes.

A lot of people who go through the things you’ve had to go through, given the personal trauma of being a sexual assault survivor and the whole reckoning with USA Gymnastics and a yearslong public spectacle, that they might not ever want to be associated with a program like that. But now you find yourself trying to reform it on the inside — why is that?

There were nine of us on the survivors’ committee for the bankruptcy, and we were all appointed to that in 2018. So it’s been almost five years now. And a lot of people were burnt out. I was also burnt out. But as a lawyer now and with all of the advocacy that I have under my belt, specifically as it relates to gymnastics and gymnasts and sexual abuse survivors, I just feel like I have all of these tools and experience, and I just want to use it to help the current generation, the future generation and ... just to make sure we’re going in the right direction.

We’ve seen over the last five years just incompetent decisions. I just feel like I have the tools to be able to help guide the organization in the right direction. Because for every misstep, I mean, gymnasts and young children are getting hurt, right? And so that’s my reason why. I just want to make sure the athletes and children on the ground doing gymnastics are safe and that the organization is making decisions that are in the best interest of the athletes and the children.

I still think some people view the Larry Nassar sexual abuse saga as an isolated incident. But being an athlete in the sport at the highest level for 20-plus, 25-plus years, Larry didn’t get to do what he did as a one-man show. There was a toxic environment, and that’s how he was able to do what he did for so many decades, really. Being a survivor who was abused by Larry Nassar, who also has a perspective of the toxic environment that allowed him to do what he did is so important. I’ve experienced the abusive coaching culture, I’ve experienced the lack of nutrition and food that we were given, I’ve experienced the negative, condescending, and emotionally abusive coaching, right and then the overtraining which led to injuries and, and beyond all of that, I’ve experienced the abuse from Larry.

So, it’s important to have a survivor on the board who has the full-circle knowledge of the experience of all of those things.

This interview came at a coincidental time because earlier this week, lawsuits were filed in which more than 90 women allege the FBI mishandled its investigation of Nassar. Are you a part of that lawsuit, or do you have a rooting interest about its outcome as a member of the survivors’ committee or as somebody now on the USA Gymnastics board?

As a survivor and being part of the legal proceedings for the last five years and also being on the co-chair of the committee, I am rooting for them to hold the FBI accountable and the Department of Justice accountable for the botched investigations from these federal agents. But if I’m a part of it, no.

Survivors that are a part of it (the lawsuit) are survivors who were abused around the time and after the federal agents were made aware of Larry and didn’t act. So, I’m rooting for them to make sure the FBI gets held accountable for their botched investigation. And because of that, almost 100 more young children, minors, teenagers were sexually abused because of that, right. And that’s the problem.

Do you think that the state of gymnastics as a youth sport has made significant strides in the way that athletes are treated since Nassar’s abuses have come to light? Do you think there’s still room for improvements in other areas like coaching culture and protecting athletes?

Another member of the Restorative Justice Task Force and I were able to attend an event in Nassau (Bahamas) earlier this year. We went down to the floor to observe the culture and the coaching. Obviously, a lot of the same players and a lot of the same coaches are still out there. However, there were new faces, and I will say that from when I did gymnastics I definitely saw an improvement. Of course, I believe that we still have a long way to go.

But you also have to think about USA Gymnastics, the new leadership coming in, and they’ve made a lot of changes in the organization that coaches have to adhere to when they’re at a competition and in the public eye and everyone’s watching. But I think when a lot of these coaches are at their home gyms and when they’re not in the public spotlight, where it’s more closed doors and they have more privacy, I know that there’s still abusive coaching happening.

As a community, we have to get the coaches who still believe that winning is the only thing that matters, right. We have to change that perspective. And get them to realize that, you know, having a happy and healthy athlete who loves gymnastics, and you’re there as a coach to serve the athlete and to assist the athlete into achieving their goals and dreams, whether that’s just learning a new skill or competing in the Olympics. Whatever their dream is, you’re there to facilitate it. It’s their dream, not your dream as a coach. And you’re there to help them and do it in a healthy way that’s not abusive. So we need to get all of the coaches in our sport to kind of buy into that new, healthy environment.

You were born in Las Vegas, do you come back to the valley often?

During COVID, there was no traveling. But we haven’t made it back in a while. We made the decision as a family to follow my husband’s coaching career. So we were in Dallas for two years because he was coaching player development with the Dallas Mavericks. And now we’re in Eugene (Ore.) because he’s an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team here at the University of Oregon.

I’m with a Dallas-based law firm called Munck Wilson Mandala, and they have been so supportive of everything that I do and know that my husband’s coaching career can potentially take you all over. So, they’ve allowed me to work remotely.

What inspired you to get into law? Was it some of the experiences that you faced growing up and going through gymnastics, or is there anything else you would attribute that to?

So when I graduated UCLA undergrad, if someone would have said one day you’re gonna go to law school and you’re going to be a lawyer, I would have said no way that’s happening. But after I graduated, I was working at a sports agency in Los Angeles representing female Olympic athletes. And I loved it. But I decided to go to law school to be able to further help them because getting them marketing deals was one thing, but then after the deal, you have to do the contract. I just felt like I was stifled a bit not being able to draft the contract and having to pass it on to someone else when I could do it myself.

Is it a full-time juggling act, working with the firm and serving on the board, as well as all the other day-to-day duties — I imagine there’s no such thing as a normal day.

My life is kind of crazy. And on top of it all, we have three small children ages 6, 4 and 1. So it’s chaotic, for sure, but I don’t think I would have it any other way.

And what are the kids up to?

If you would have asked me like five years ago, even like a year ago, if I would have my kids in gymnastics, I would say absolutely not. But now that I’m on the board and we have a survivor’s voice in the room at the table, making decisions, I feel more confident about the state of our sport and the direction that I will help steer it in. Child safety is my number one priority, and I am not going to fail in that.

Are any of them in gymnastics? Is that something, given your experiences, you’d allow them to pursue if they’re passionate about it down the road?

So my oldest daughter (the 6-year-old), she does dance. Loves it. She was doing musical theater. And, you know, my husband played basketball and now coaches basketball and she’s very inspired by his women’s basketball team and has become friends with all of them. Sometimes he’ll take the older two kids to work so they can hang out with the team or play with an empty court. But she kind of does everything. She has long arms, long legs, and she’s very athletic.

But I don’t know about (gymnastics). We’ll just have to see. I think at this point, my goal as a parent is to expose her to everything and just let her pick what she likes. At this point, she’s kind of gravitated more towards the arts, like dancing and singing. However, we did sign her up for a youth track meet last month at Hayward Field, and she won her race. She had never run before. My husband took her out to practice one time before, and she ran the 800 (meter) and was great.

I just want to expose them to everything. My kids have also done rec gymnastics. When we moved to Eugene, we did a little bit of rec gymnastics. And now that it’s summer and we have a little more time, I’ve reenrolled my kids in rec gymnastics here at a local gym. For me, I think it’s just staying active and doing what makes them happy.

My son (the 4-year-old), he does tennis, and he also does basketball. He loves both. And then my other daughter (the 1-year-old) we actually just enrolled her in baby gymnastics, so she’ll be starting that soon. They’ve tried golf, they’ve tried bowling. Really just a little bit of everything.

Being a Las Vegan, do you have any fond memories of the valley looking back at it?

In Oregon, there’s a lot of rain. So I do miss the sunshine. But as a gymnast growing up in Las Vegas, from like 8 years old, I started training like five or six days a week, six hours a day. You add that to school and sleeping and eating meals, there really isn’t much time to socialize. I’ve gone to Lake Mead a few times, and I think I’ve gone to Red Rock maybe once, there wasn’t a lot of time to enjoy any of that stuff.

Is there anything in your time at the valley that you attribute your success to as a gymnast or going to law school?

I’m a product of Gymcats, and my coach, Kathy, who basically coached me from the time that I was 6 until well through the Olympics, and when I was an alternate in the 2004 Olympics. She’s still there running the gym. I call her my second mom because we’re super close. She’s still thriving, and Gymcats is doing really well. In terms of my success, I attribute all of it to Kathy being an amazing role model and doing her best to coach me to my potential.

In terms of law school, I applied to several. I took the LSAT in California. I was living in L.A. at the time, so I planned on maybe going to a Southern California school. But it was UNLV that gave me the scholarship money and the Las Vegas Business Academy who gave me a scholarship for law school.

I was like, ‘You know what, these people believe in me,’ and I wanted to come back into the community and be a part of this legal community. I’m still super close with Rino Armeni, the executive director at the Las Vegas Business Academy. Even though I’ve moved out of state for my career, I’m still really close with the organization. They’ve been so supportive of my legal career and everything that I’ve done, just the mentorship and all the people that were so gracious in helping guide me to be a successful professional outside of gymnastics. And I’m just very thankful for them and how they’ve positively impacted my life.

In terms of the Olympics, what was that ascent like? Do you look back at that time as memorable? How does it stack up with some of your other accolades?

Being at the Olympics at such a young age, I will say that it’s interesting. Because, like, under normal circumstances just being at the Olympics, and putting aside all of the abuse and everything we went through, is such a cool accomplishment.

But I feel like what we had to go through, especially in that timeframe with the toxic culture and gymnastics caused me to develop a 10-year-long eating disorder. And the sexual abuse from Larry, there’s just a lot of trauma and horrible things surrounding my being a part of the Olympics.

I wish I could say to you, ‘Oh, it was such a great experience,’ but I wouldn’t want to go through all of that again. If I could do the Olympics again in a healthy environment, I guess my answer would be very different.