Simone Biles Hints That The Larry Nassar Sexual Abuse Scandal Contributed To Olympics Withdrawal
Simone Biles hinted that the sexual abuse she endured from Larry Nassar contributed to her decision to step back from the Tokyo Olympics.
The four-time Gold medalist shared a message on social media from fellow gymnast Andrea Orris, who backed her decision to bow out of the women's team final and most recently, the final individual all-around competition.
Orris' statement, which shined a light on what the US gymnast may have been going through, came after Biles confirmed her departure — announced by USA Gymnastics on Tuesday, July 27 — was not due to an injury but a "mental issue" she was having.
“It makes me so frustrated to see comments about Simone not being mentally tough enough or quitting on her team," the message read.
“We are talking about the same girl who was molested by her team doctor throughout her entire childhood and teen years" and "won the world all-around championship title while passing a kidney stone," Orris pointed out.
Biles "put her body through an extra year of training through the pandemic, added so much difficulty to her routines that the judges literally do not know how to properly rate her skills bc they are so ahead of her time,” Orris continued of the beloved athlete — who was one of the 100 female gymnasts who credibly accused Nassar of molestation.
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“All of this while maintaining her responsibilities to her endorsement deals, the media, personal relationships, etc. and some people can still honestly say ‘Simone Biles is soft. She is a quitter,’" she continued before concluding: “That girl has endured more trauma by the age of 24 than most people will ever go through in a lifetime.”
OK! reported the 24-year-old's unexpected exit came after her uncharacteristic vault performance, which earned a 13.766 — the lowest score of Biles' Olympics career. Instead of doing two 1/2 twists in mid-air during her vault routine, she only did one 1/2 twist instead.
While acknowledging that Biles "balked" mid-air, Orris said the accident was a "big deal" because she "could have been severely injured getting lost in the air like that."
Orris further commended Biles' decision to leave on her own, noting: "the fact that she took herself out of the competition on her own merit means that whatever she is dealing with internally has to be insurmountable and should be taken seriously."
Biles' re-posted statement comes after she revealed in 2018 that she was sexually abused by the convicted sex offender, who was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison in 2017 after he pleaded guilty to child pornography & tampering with evidence charges.
One year later, Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual assault of minors and was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan State prison. He pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault in Eaton County one month later and was sentenced to another 40 to 125 years in Michigan State prison.
At the time, Biles openly addressed the struggle she was having with returning to the same place she was abused to train for the upcoming Olympics. “It is impossibly difficult to relive these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work towards my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused,” the athlete admitted on Twitter.
