Chris Witty is a five-time Olympian who will carry the American flag at the Winter Games.

She was also sexually abused for seven years as a child and wants to talk about it.

A three-time speed skating medallist, Witty was elected by her teammates to lead the 211-member US team into the Turin stadium where the Games open on Friday night.

Until 18 months ago, she was known as a gold medallist at Salt Lake City in 2002 and one of the few athletes to have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics [Images].

Now as US flagbearer she has a platform to discuss a darker side of her life -- the scourge of child abuse.

"Abuse of any kind exists because of secrecy," Witty, 30, told reporters after it was announced she would carry the flag.

"The fact that I can use this platform and just start talking about it, maybe people will break the silence."

Witty said between the ages of 4 and 11, she was sexually abused by an elderly neighbour in a Milwaukee suburb.

She remembers "over and over" the first time it happened. It was a warm, sunny day. Her mother was at work. Her father was mowing the lawn before going to his job as a welder.

"He was in the house for five minutes or whatever, just to have a quick shower, just to rinse off, and he thought he could trust me with this neighbour who was a good friend of his, a nice guy, great with kids. I just remember that moment."

Witty said as many as one in three girls and one in five boys are abused in the United States. She now helps Good Touch/Bad Touch, an organisation that trains professionals about the signs of sexual abuse.

She remembers the voice and the smell of her abuser, who eventually went to jail but is now free.

"I remember being in his basement," she said. "He made this awesome doll house ...I just thought, that's the greatest thing, I would love to have it."

"I remember him telling me, 'I have this cute little girlfriend. She's so good to me and you're not. She's getting it. That's why, she's a good girl.'"

Witty eventually told her story to a Salt Lake City newspaper, but only after winning the 1,000-metre medal in 2002 and months of therapy. Before that, she had nightmares.

"I found out that the guy who had done it to me was doing it to a girl I used to baby-sit for who lived on the same block.

"When I heard that she was pressing charges, going to court, I went through serious depression."

Sports -- she competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a cyclist -- were a release. "I could be free on the ice."

But it was only after she went public with her story that she felt healed. "Now I just feel so much more comfortable."

Her advice to both children and adults is to talk about abuse. "If you are 10 years old and it happened to you, that's the first step. When I realised it was not my fault, that's when the healing really began."

What does she hope a 10-year-old girl watching her walk into the Olympic Stadium on Friday will see? "Hopefully somebody she can look up to."