A former member of the University of Michigan women's tennis team has emerged as the first female to claim she was sexually abused during an examination by university physician Robert Anderson.
As reported by ESPN, Cathy Kalahar says the abuse occurred during a physical exam in 1973. When she described her experience to a psychological counselor at the University Health Service months later, Kalahar says the counselor immediately dismissed her complaints as untrue and a "sexual fantasy."
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A former member of the University of Michigan women's tennis team has emerged as the first female to claim she was sexually abused during an examination by university physician Robert Anderson.
As reported by ESPN, Cathy Kalahar says the abuse occurred during a physical exam in 1973. When she described her experience to a psychological counselor at the University Health Service months later, Kalahar says the counselor immediately dismissed her complaints as untrue and a "sexual fantasy."
Anderson, who died in 2008, worked at the University of Michigan in a variety of roles from 1967 through 2003, including as a team physician in the athletic department. A letter sent to current athletic director Warde Manuel in 2018 prompted an investigation that eventually led to revelations of a long pattern of alleged sexual abuse among more than 400 men, many of whom had competed for the Wolverines. More than 70 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits this year that argue that the university's negligence allowed Anderson to continue his sexual abuse for decades after he was reported to authorities on campus.
Related: Michigan Contacting Thousands About Medical Abuse
Michigan launched its women's athletics program in 1973, Kalahar's freshman year. A physical examination was mandated once she had made the women's tennis team, and her turn alone in Anderson's exam room left her shocked.
As reported by ESPN's Dan Murphy, Kalahar says Anderson first checked her heart with a stethoscope, then squeezed her breasts and commented on how large they were. She says Anderson told her that men would not like her because her breasts were too large and suggested that she should have them "cut down."Â She says Anderson suggested that if she were not interested in a breast reduction procedure, she should consider becoming a lesbian, because men didn't like breasts as large as hers, and a woman might be more compassionate.
"I was in disbelief," Kalahar says. "I'm being suggested to me that I'm a lesbian, [that] I'm unattractive to males, I should be considering a woman. I hadn't even thought about being with a woman sexually or as a lover. That was not on my radar. And it's very upsetting to me as an 18-year-old to have that suggested to me by what I felt was a total stranger."
Later in the exam, Kalahar says Anderson inserted his ungloved fingers into her vagina without any explanation. Kalahar says she had a proper gynecological exam, with her mother supervising, at a local doctor's office during her high school years. She says what Anderson did to her during her first month at Michigan was different. Kalahar says she knew immediately that something was wrong but was too shocked to say anything.
Kalahar says that before ending the exam, Anderson gave her a business card with contact information for a female campus psychology counselor. He told her that she should speak to the counselor to figure out if she wanted to become a lesbian or have her breasts reduced.
She says she described to the University Health Service counselor, a woman, what Anderson did and said to her during her physical exam. The counselor, Kalahar says, told her that those things didn't actually occur and that this was part of a sexual fantasy that Kalahar wanted to happen. Kalahar says she pushed back and told the counselor that she was telling the truth, but the counselor persisted in not believing her — a situation that "very common" in the 1970s, according to Dr. Jaine Darwin, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and a clinical supervisor for the Victims of Violence program at Cambridge Health Alliance.
"As much as I was shocked by the doctor, now I'm more shocked by the follow-up therapist," Kalahar says. "So for me, it was a second wound, which in some ways was worse than the first."
Decades before any public accusations were made against Anderson, though, Kalahar told a different therapist what happened to her. That therapist confirmed to ESPN that Kalahar told him in the 1980s that she was sexually assaulted during a physical exam at Michigan and that a campus psychologist did not believe her.
Kalahar's attorney, Parker Stinar, said his firm represents more than 115 clients in the Anderson case, and roughly 10 percent of them are women.
"I think there's a component that since the majority of the stories have been on behalf of male athletes, that women may be fearful or concerned about coming forward," Stinar said.
Earlier this year, Kalahar read about the burgeoning claims of sexual assault made against Anderson. Though she says she erased the names of medical professionals from that period, as well as the physical appearance of the physician she claims abused her, she says she is convinced that it was Anderson.
"I'm very confident that it was him because of the level of his rudeness and what I've read in the other report," she says. "It fits what happened to other people in terms of his, I would have to say, cruelty."
