It may have happened to you too: a door slamming in the night, an annoying noise that torments you in your sleep and maybe even in life. Trouble yourself to make him stop or put a pillow on your head so you don’t feel it? Jennifer Fox it made it ring in her mind for forty years, even though she tried to silence it, it wasn’t that annoying after all, even if it made her uncomfortable. And what could be a creak that comes from the past?
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Jennifer, born in ’59, is an American writer, director, producer who signed the documentary in 2006 Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, testimonies on the lives and sexual experiences of women in the United States. It takes her five years to shoot it and while she records some of the interviewees, victims of abuse, she finds that noise that is no longer in the background. Certain stories take her back and now that she thinks about it they seem very similar to her, indeed, how could she not have understood it before her, they are exactly her. Why had she deleted it? Talking about other people’s lives sometimes helps you come to terms with your own. So in 2018 you set out to write and direct a film, The Taleabout a 13-year-old girl abused by her well-respected and famous former coach, who is 27 years older.
The interpreter is Laura Dern, but that teenager with the camera in her teeth is her, the director, Jennifer Fox. The coach, however, has a fictional name. «I had consulted with various law firms, it had been too long to sue him, everyone had discouraged me, if I had appointed him he would have sued me. A private investigator might have been able to discover other girls molested by him, but it would have cost me too much. And at that moment the most important thing for me was making the film.”
In 2021, three seasons later, the famous coach who all athletes consider a father dies at 88 years old. The world of rowing celebrates his skill, two Olympic medals (a gold in Rome and a bronze in Tokyo), eleven Games as an athlete and coach from 1960 to 2008, Man of the Year 2005, Medal of Honor in 2013 for “the extraordinary feats” in sport. An icon, a symbol, a legend. Fox reads the obituaries and doesn’t agree, they talk about his abuser as a person of exceptional humanity. «The adult in me wanted to forget and move on from her, the little girl on the other hand couldn’t bear the idea of him getting away with it and being covered in glory. I thought it was important to show the other side of the man that everyone put on a pedestal.”
So he denounces him, calls him by his name: Ted Nash. Not just anyone, but the legendary coach of the national team and Pennsylvania University from ’65 to ’83, an All American Boy, former Green Beret, 48 Olympic medals with 76 crews, founder of the women’s rowing federation, also a running instructor. Fox gives an interview to the New York Times describing the relationship and the abuse that ended in 1973. She considers herself a survivor, not a victim, but the feeling of having been manipulated is clear. «He was an adult, the man I trusted, my teacher. I was a shy, invisible girl, at school and in my family no one cared about me. He looked at me, said he loved me, made me feel special. Then I couldn’t process it, it took me 50 years to understand the damage.”
Damning post-mortem. That half a century later causes discussion and above all annoys the accusation of a man who can no longer defend himself. Is there a right time for reporting and for moral compensation? Nash’s first wife, Aldina Hampe, also a former rower, said she wasn’t too surprised. «I left him because she was cheating on me, as a divorcee you never provided for our two children, I discovered various letters from girls with whom he had affairs, but his reputation was that of being a wonderful man and an excellent technician» . An upstanding guy, said in the American way. It was true: in years when no one promoted women’s sport, he had done it, he had been courageous, he had gone against the grain. However, from a sporting point of view, he was an excellent coach.
His second and last wife, Jan Nash, was instead controversial. «He was always an enthusiastic and positive person, I didn’t know Ted at that time so I can’t express myself. But can everything he did to encourage women’s rowing now be forgotten because someone comes out with an accusation? It is not right for Mrs. Fox to nominate Mr. Nash now that she cannot defend herself.” Harass the memory?
In 2022 Jennifer files a nine-page complaint against Nash and USRowing, the rowing federation that has a chief executive, Amanda Kraus. And she points out that the US Center for SafeSport, an American non-profit organization created in 2017 to combat sexual abuse of athletes, particularly minors, responded that it could not deal with the matter as Nash is dead. USRowing, which is based in Princeton, hires the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling to investigate pro bono for 16 months. What’s true? Four days ago the conclusions: «The seriousness of Mrs. Fox’s statements exceeds Mr. Nash’s inability to respond to the accusations».
There is no reason why Jennifer had to make up the harassment. The study claims to have interviewed 47 people (an 18-year-old confirmed having received heavy sexual advances from Nash) and to have conducted an analysis of more than 100 pages, including a written test at school that Geraldine Fox, the mother, had kept. In her English essay, fifteen-year-old Jennifer writes about going to bed with an adult. The teacher returns her essay with a grade of A-, pointing out a grammatical error, as well as a vivid imagination. The blue pencil mistake for the language-conscious teacher is to write me instead of my. A dunce Lolita.
Another student remembers Jennifer confessing to her that she was having an affair with a married man. Kraus on behalf of UsRowing publishes the investigation: «We understand that this result may be difficult for some members of our community, but it is always better to choose transparency. We will not hide our heads in the sand because every time we do we allow younger people to get hurt in the future.” He also calls on other Nash-affiliated organizations that have granted him honors to review their actions. The University of Pennsylvania, which dedicated a rowing center to him in 2014, will have his name written on it in March 2023. Jennifer says: “The whole process was very hard, like removing a rotten tumor from your body.” Certain doors must be closed, even if it is inconvenient to do so, because letting them slam shut ruins your sleep and dreams. And because even at 65 it’s nice to finally no longer have to row against it.
#Rowing #battle #won #Jennifer #Fox
– 2024-05-06 20:43:08
