Gymnast McKayla Maroney reveals she was abused 'hundreds' of times by Larry Nassar in gut-wrenching first TV interview

Olympic gold-medal gymnast McKayla Maroney is speaking on TV for the first time about the abuse she was subjected to by disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

She told the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie that Nassar’s molestation began immediately at their first meeting, when she was only 13 years old.

“He told me he was going to do a checkup on me, and that was the first day I was abused,” Maroney said.

In October, Maroney revealed her abuse with a tweet pegged to the #MeToo movement. And earlier this year, statements from dozens of Nassar’s victims were read aloud in court. Maroney’s prosecutor read hers, in which she called the doctor a “monster of a human being.”

On Today, Maroney revealed the sick manipulation tactics Nassar used on her. “He said that nobody would understand this and the sacrifice that it takes to get to the Olympics, so you can’t tell people this,” said Maroney. “He didn’t say it in a way that was mean or anything like that. I actually was like, ‘That makes sense. I don’t want to tell anybody about this.’”

Maroney also said that she was molested by Nassar “every time I saw him” and that the total number of incidents numbers in the “hundreds.”

Nassar is currently serving a 60-year sentence for child pornography crimes. In February, he also was sentenced to 40 to 125 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct. Essentially, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Maroney’s full interview will air Sunday on NBC’s Dateline at 7 p.m.