GYMNASTS REVEAL SEX ABUSE HORRORS
Olympic champion Simone Biles and other top American gymnasts have lashed out at US sports officials and the FBI for failing to act promptly on complaints about Larry Nassar, the former team doctor convicted of serial sexual abuse.
“We have been failed and we deserve answers,” said the 24-yearold Biles, a seven-time Olympic medallist and the most decorated gymnast in history.
“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar but I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” she told an emotional hearing of the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
Nassar, 58, was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting women and girls while working as a team doctor.
USA Gymnastics reported him to the FBI in July 2015, but he continued to work and sexually abused at least
70 more women until a newspaper exposed him in September 2016.
Biles and three other gymnasts – Mckayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols – testified they were let down by the FBI, the leadership of USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
“We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at the FBI, USAG or USOPC did what was necessary to protect us,” said Biles,
who had to halt her testimony at several points to compose herself and wipe away tears.
Maroney, who won gold at the 2012 Olympics, said she reported the abuse by Nassar in a phone interview with an FBI agent in 2015 but it was “minimised and disregarded”.
The gymnasts were invited to testify before the Senate committee under oath about the “FBI’S dereliction of duty in the Nassar case”.