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Paralyzed gymnast in US$1.8 bln lawsuit
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Former Chinese gymnast Sang Lan has recently filed a lawsuit in the United States, 13 years after a training accident left her paralyzed and ended her career as a world-class gymnast. The suit targets five organizations and three people, saying they broke promises to care for Sang Lan, then 17, and paralyzed from the chest down ever since.
A wheelchair has been one indispensable part of her life since Sang Lan broke her neck during a warm-up vault at the Goodwill Games in New York in 1998.
And without help or assistance, she cannot get in or out of cars as she has been paralyzed from her upper chest down since the accident.
Thirteen years have passed since her spine was injured in the accident, and while Sang Lan's leg muscles have atrophied her mind has grown stronger.
Sang Lan, Former Gymnast, said, "I just want to find a fair answer for me. In the past, people said that Sang Lan herself made the mistake that caused her to fall. Actually,it was not my fault. So I think I need to let people know what actually happened behind the scenes."
Sang Lan filed a 1.8 billion US dollar lawsuit in a federal court in Manhattan against almost everyone involved. They range from Ted Turner, who founded the Goodwill Games where the accident happened in 1998 in New York, to the former AOL Time Warner Incorporation media company, which owned the games, and the USA Gymnastics, which supported the event, to the TIG Insurance Company as well as the Riverstone Insurance Agent.
Sang Lan says these organizations failed to follow through on promises to make sure her medical bills and other needs were covered, and that she's been unable to obtain necessary treatment.
As for the guardians targeted in the lawsuit, Liu Guosheng and Xie Xiaohong, Sang has alleged that she was the victim of improper sexual behavior while living with the Liu family.
Sang Lan said, “After the sexual harassment was disclosed, I received lots of blame on the Internet. But this indeed happened,I will speak out about what happened then."
However, the lawsuit is not very optimistic.
According to Sang's lawyer, parts of the lawsuit could be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired for some of the counts in the complaint.
But Sang Lan says she is prepared for any outcome.
The most important thing for her now is to get just and fair treatment- and to convey the true image of the incident.
