As a 5-year-old, Olympian Margaret Hoelzer didn't realize her best friend's father was sexually abusing her.
"I didn't connect the dots, other than feeling uncomfortable. I think, on a subconscious level, I knew it. But consciously, I didn't," she told the Seattle Times in 2008.
Hoelzer often went to the friend's house and frequently stayed the night.
"It was definitely a situation where I was taught to trust that person," she said in that interview.
It wasn't until a few years later that she realized what had happened. She told a friend, who immediately told her that she should tell her mother. Hoelzer and her mother estimated that her friend's father had abused her for about two years. The abuse stopped when her friend's family moved away from Huntsville, Ala., where Hoelzer grew up.
Though her abuser was eventually arrested, no charges stuck due a lack of evidence and the length of time between the abuse and the arrest.
Hoelzer found swimming when she was 8 years old.
"I always felt like swimming was the one thing I could control," she said to the Seattle Times. "I can't control other people. I can't control whether or not I beat someone, or how they swim. But I could control how good I was."
After getting a degree in psychology with a minor in criminology from Auburn University, Hoelzer went on to win three medals—two silver and one bronze—at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Today she is a world champion and an advocate against child abuse.
Hoelzer, who is the national spokeswoman for the National Children's Advocacy Center, will be the keynote speaker at the "One Loud Voice" conference. The conference brings national experts together to talk about child abuse and trauma. "One Loud Voice" begins tomorrow morning, April 1, at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Jackson (200 E. Amite St.) at 10:30 a.m., and continues through Wednesday. Registration for the two-day event is $99 and is open to the public.
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
