In his new autobiography due out next month, boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard says that he was sexually abused by a coach as a young boxer in the early 1970s. The New York Times has the details.
Leonard writes that when the coach accompanied him as a 15-year-old and another young fighter to a boxing event in Utica, N.Y., in 1971, he had the teenagers take a bath in a tub of hot water and Epsom salts while he sat on the other side of the bathroom. They suspected “something a bit inappropriate” was occurring but did not want to question a strong male authority figure.
Several years later, Leonard describes sitting in a car in a deserted parking lot across from a recreation center, listening intently as the same coach, said to be in his late 40s, explained how much a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics would mean to his future.
Leonard was flattered, filled with hope, as any young athlete would be. But he writes: “Before I knew it, he had unzipped my pants and put his hand, then mouth, on an area that has haunted me for life. I didn’t scream. I didn’t look at him. I just opened the door and ran.”
He adds that when he first decided to discuss the incident in the book, which is written with Michael Arkush, he offered a version in which the abuser stopped before there was actual contact.
“That was painful enough,” Leonard writes. “But last year, after watching the actor Todd Bridges bare his soul on Oprah’s show about how he was sexually abused as a kid, I realized I would never be free unless I revealed the whole truth, no matter how much it hurt.”
I couldn’t imagine being haunted by something like that and I think it’s admirable that Leonard was able to discuss something that he kept so secretive in a book that will be read by millions. Maybe sharing the traumatic experience will help him cope with what happened and help others who have gone through something similar. Never underestimate the power other people can have on someone’s life.
It’s sickening that adults would take advantage of their influence over young people so that they may satisfy their desires. These people should be locked up.
