“I should have quit before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar had been working in the media for two years. That was a lot. But I wouldn’t let him take away something I worked for since I was six.
“I wasn’t going to let him take that joy from me. So I got over it as long as my mind and body allowed me.”
Biles testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s handling of the sexual assault allegations against Nassar along with three other players — McKella Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols — all of whom are Nassar assault survivors.
The allegations against the former U.S. gymnast doctor were first submitted to the FBI in July 2015, but the Justice Department’s Inspector General report stated that the agency “failed to respond to Nassar’s allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that it deserved and demanded, and fundamentally wronged when they responded to, and violated Multiple FBI Policies”.
An emotional testimony from Biles testified that the gymnast blamed “an entire system that enabled and perpetuated his abuse”.
“I woke up – I lost it’
Biles highlighted the phenomenon of sprains that prompted her to immediately withdraw from the team and four individual finals.
Biles revealed that she inexplicably lost her bearings in the air, “her perspective has never changed so quickly from wanting to be on the podium to wanting to go home on my own without any crutches.”
“If I still had air awareness, and I was having a bad day, I would have continued. But it was more than that.
“Say until you’re 30, you have your full eyesight. One morning, you wake up, you can’t see anything, but people tell you to keep doing your day job as if you still had your eyesight,” Beals explained.
“You’re going to get lost, right? That’s the only thing I can associate with it. I’ve been doing gymnastics for 18 years. I woke up—I lost it. How am I supposed to go on with my day?”
Her suffering was compounded by the death of her aunt, who died “unexpectedly” while Biles was competing in Japan.
Proof of her determination, despite all that she endured, Biles managed to leave Tokyo on a boom — raising her Olympic medal total to seven with a bronze in the balance beam final.
“To bring up the topic of mental health, I think it has to be talked about a lot, especially with athletes because I know some of us go through the same things and are always told to move forward with it,” Biles told reporters. After getting third place.
goat
With Tonight’s Show in San Francisco, Biles leads an all-star team of athletes across 35 US cities to celebrate female sports and inspire a new generation of gymnasts.
“I love gymnastics and wanted to help create a show that celebrates the pure joy of performing,” said Biles, on the tour’s official website.
The final show is scheduled to take place in Boston on November 7.
CNN’s Christina Kariga, Evan Perez, and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
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