Simone Biles has admitted that she should have walked away from the Olympic programme “way before” the Tokyo Games.
Biles withdrew from five of her six finals at the Olympics in July to focus on her mental health after suffering from a phenomenon known as the twisties that affected her spatial awareness when competing.
The 24-year-old, who had been expected to add to the four gold medals she won at Rio 2016, revealed in 2018 that she was one of the United States gymnasts abused by team doctor Larry Nassar, who is now serving a life sentence in jail. Earlier this month, when
Biles began her testimony with a quote from Nelson Mandela that: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” She briefly had to pause after becoming overcome with emotion, before she continued.
“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” she said. “USA Gymnastics and the United States, Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge.”
The FBI is accused of failing to properly investigate allegations that Nassar was abusing athletes in his care. “Children suffered needlessly because multiple agents in multiple offices at the FBI neglected to share the Nassar allegations with their law enforcement counterparts at state and local agencies,” Republican senator Chuck Grassley said in prepared remarks before Tuesday’s hearing.
