Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles told Congress that the FBI and gymnastics officials turned a “blind eye” to USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women.
Ms Biles told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “enough is enough” as she and three other US gymnasts spoke in stark emotional terms about the lasting toll Nassar’s crimes had taken on their lives.
The 2016 Olympic champion and five-time world champion – widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time – said that she “can imagine no place that I would be less comfortable right now than sitting here in front of you”. She declared herself a survivor of sexual abuse.
“I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” Ms Biles said.
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”.
A tearful Ms Biles said a message needed to be sent: “If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe. Enough is enough.”
The hearing is part of a congressional effort to hold the FBI accountable after multiple mis-steps in investigating the case, including the delays that allowed the now-imprisoned Nassar to abuse other young gymnasts.
An internal investigation by the Justice Department released in July said that the FBI made fundamental errors in the investigation and did not treat the case with the “utmost seriousness” after USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis in 2015.
The FBI has acknowledged its own conduct was inexcusable.
At least 40 girls and women said they were assaulted after the FBI had been made aware of the problem.
McKayla Maroney, another gold medal-winning gymnast, told senators that one night when she was 15-years-old, she found the doctor on top of her while she was naked – one of many times she was abused. She said she thought she was going to die that evening.
Ms Maroney said the FBI “minimised and disregarded” her after she reported Nassar and said the agency delayed the investigation as other gymnasts were abused.
“I think for so long all of us questioned, just because someone else wasn’t fully validating us, that we doubted what happened to us,” Ms Maroney said.
“And I think that makes the healing process take longer.”
Ms Biles and Ms Maroney were joined by Aly Raisman, another Olympic gold medallist, and gymnast Maggie Nichols.
Ms Raisman said it “disgusts me” that they are still looking for answers six years after the original allegations against Nassar were reported.
“We just can’t fix a problem we don’t understand, and we can’t understand the problem unless and until we have all of the facts,” Ms Raisman said, noting the traumatic effect the abuse had had on all of them.
“Being here today is taking everything I have,” she said.
“My main concern is I hope I have the energy to just walk out of here. I don’t think people realise how much it affects us.”
Ms Biles acknowledged in January 2018 that she was among the hundreds of athletes who were abused by Nassar.
She is the only one of the witnesses who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – held this year after a one-year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic – but removed herself from the team finals to focus on her mental health.
She returned to earn a bronze medal on beam but told the committee the lingering trauma from her abuse at the hands of Nassar had played a factor in her decision to opt out of several competitions.
Democratic and Republican senators expressed disgust over the case and said they would continue to investigate.
FBI director Christopher Wray and Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz, who conducted the July report, will testify in a second panel after the gymnasts.
Nassar was ultimately charged in 2016 with federal child pornography offences and sexual abuse charges in Michigan.
He is now serving decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women said he sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment when he worked for Michigan State and Indiana-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.
