The face of artistic gymnastics, Simone Biles, blames Larry Nassar for her mental trauma and its effects on her performance at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old finished third in the balance beam event. She was supposed to participate in five other events but decided to withdraw from all the events after scoring her lowest in the all-around team finals. The star has been a face of artistic gymnastics ever since she was 19 years old but her poor performance at the Tokyo Olympics shocked the entire nation. She later admitted to having been under a lot of mental distress caused by Larry Nassar.
“Now that I think of it, maybe in the back of my head, probably, yes. Because there are certain triggers that you don’t even know. And I think [the abuse] could have [affected me].”
Biles was just one of the many victims of habitual sex offenders and pedophile Nassar. Nassar was the USA Gymnastics physician before he admitted to his crimes and was dismissed from his position. He is now serving his time in federal prison.
Talking about her past abuse and how to deal with such predators, Biles further added that these athletes need to be protected. She admitted to speaking up about this issue because she believed that being a public figure means that the issue will not be swept under the rug and be treated as just another scandal.
“But I knew that still being the face of gymnastics and the USA and everything we’ve brought, it’s not going to be buried under the rug and it will still be a very big conversation.”
