Simone
Biles,
of the
United
States,
waits to
perform
on the
vault
during
the
artistic
gymnastics
women's
final at
the 2020
Summer
Olympics,
Tuesday,
July 27,
2021, in
Tokyo.
The
American
gymnastics
superstar
has
withdrawn
the
all-around
competition
to focus
on her
mental
well-being.
(AP
Photo/Gregory
Bull) |
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The 2016
Olympic
champion
will
compete
in the
balance
beam
finals
on
Tuesday,
a little
over a
week
after
stepping
away
from the
meet to
focus on
her
mental
health.
(Photo
by Getty
Images) |
|
Simone
Biles
was
abandoned
by
American
Olympic
officials,
and the
torment
hasn't
stopped
By
Sally
Jenkins
chron.com
TOYKO -
The
trouble
with the
phrase
"mental
health"
is that
it's an
abstraction
that
allows
you to
sail
right
straight
over
what
happened
to
Simone
Biles
and, in
a way,
what is
still
happening
to her.
To this
day,
American
Olympic
officials
continue
to
betray
her.
They
deny
that
they had
a legal
duty to
protect
her and
others
from
rapist-child
pornographer
Larry
Nassar,
and they
continue
to evade
accountability
in
judicial
maneuvering.
Abuse is
a
current
event
for her.
It's
a
perilous
endeavor
to
project
what
Biles,
the most
uniquely
superior
gymnast
in the
world,
is
feeling
or
thinking
at this
juncture.
But she
has been
frank
about
these
things:
her
profound
lingering
distrust
of USA
Gymnastics
and the
USOPC
and her
conviction
they
will not
do right
by her
and
other
athletes
of their
own
accord.
Remember,
if it
wasn't
for
Biles
bringing
her
clout to
the
issue,
these
users
would
still be
making
women
train in
the
buggy
squalor
of the
Karolyi
Ranch,
the
USOPC-sanctioned
hellhole
where
they
were
molested.
As
Biles
told
NBC's
Hoda
Kotb in
a recent
interview,
one of
the main
reasons
she came
back for
another
Olympics
at age
24 was
to try
to
ensure
some
accountability.
"If
there
weren't
a
remaining
survivor
in the
sport,
they
would've
just
brushed
it to
the
side,"
she
said.
It
was only
two
weeks
ago that
the
Justice
Department's
inspector
general
released
a report
on the
Nassar
case, in
which
Biles
learned
in new
infuriating
detail
how
corrupt
officials
hushed
up
evidence
that the
gymnastics
doctor
was a
serial
sex
assaulter
and how
then-USAG
chief
Steve
Penny
traded
favors
with
local
FBI
agent
Jay
Abbott
to
bottom-drawer
it.
Documents
produced
in a
long-stalled
civil
suit
against
USOPC
and USAG
have
brought
other
aggravating
recent
revelations.
One in
particular
is worth
looking
at, in
light of
what
happened
to Biles
on the
vaulting
floor in
Tokyo on
July 27,
2021.
That's
the day
Biles
became
so
disoriented
on her
vault
that she
couldn't
risk
competing
in the
team
finals.
As
chance
would
have it,
that's
the same
date
that,
six
years
earlier,
Steve
Penny
threw
her to
the
wolf.
On
July 27,
2015,
Biles
was an
18-year-old
world
champion
who
arrived
at USAG
headquarters
in
Indianapolis
for a
series
of
appearances
to
promote
one of
their
events.
For two
days,
Biles
signed
autographs
and did
other
favors
to
please
USAG
officials.
Penny
personally
drove
Biles
and her
mother
to some
of the
functions
and had
extended
conversations
with
her,
according
to John
Manly,
an
attorney
for
Biles
and
other
victims.
Biles
even
appeared
at a
birthday
party
for
Penny's
daughter.
You
know
what
Penny
failed
to
mention
over
those
two
days? In
fact,
failed
to
breathe
so much
as a
word of,
much
less
warn her
of? The
fact
that he
had
credible
evidence
Nassar
was a
molester.
On
July 25,
shortly
before
Biles
arrived
in
Indianapolis,
Penny
had
learned
of an
"unambiguous
claim of
sexual
abuse"
by
Nassar
against
a
gymnast
from a
private
investigator,
who told
him he
was
obliged
to go
straight
law
enforcement.
Instead
Penny
went
straight
to the
USOPC,
calling
CEO
Scott
Blackmun
for
advice.
On July
27, even
as Biles
was in
Indianapolis
smiling
for the
cameras
and
signing
autographs,
Penny
scheduled
a
meeting
with the
local
FBI. And
on July
28, he
met with
the
FBI's
Abbott,
who
subsequently
smothered
the
investigation
for
months
while
Penny
explored
getting
him a
job at
the
USOPC.
And
he never
said a
word to
Biles.
If
you
think
conduct
like
this is
past
tense
for
these
organizations,
think
again.
Throughout
2020 and
2021,
the
USOPC
and USAG
have
perpetuated
their
coverup
with
civil
court
motions.
They
have
hidden
from
accountability
with
bankruptcy
proceedings.
They
have
demanded
that in
exchange
for any
civil
settlement,
Biles
and
others
who
suffered
Nassar's
assaults
issue
blanket
liability
releases
that
would
protect
a
rogue's
gallery
of
well-known
abusers,
as well
as
Penny.
And they
have
fought
to keep
the
depositions
of
Penny,
Blackmun
and
former
chairman
Larry
Probst
under
seal.
Under
seal.
Does
that
sound
like
these
organizations
have
turned
over a
new leaf
and
become
more
"athlete-centered?"
They had
the
nerve to
feign
support
for
Biles
this
week.
They are
not her
supporters.
They are
her
tormentors.
MORE
SPORTS:
Hey SEC,
thanks
for the
invite,
but just
so you
know,
we'll
never
chant
S-E-C
The
price
for
winning
all
those
gold
medals
is that
Biles
now gets
to be
analyzed
by every
armchair
psychologist
in the
world.
Here's a
bulletin.
She's
not
doing so
well.
And
exactly
how well
should
she be
doing
under
these
circumstances?
"It's
like
fighting
all
those
demons
coming
in
here,"
she said
after
the team
competition.
It
is
unfair
and
potentially
even
deceptive
to try
to peer
into her
head and
delineate
the
exact
shape of
those
demons
as she
tries to
decide
whether
to
compete
again in
Tokyo.
But it
was
always
equally
unfair
to
expect
her to
vault
lightly
past the
Nassar
case and
back on
to the
medal
podium.
One
of the
things
the
women
who were
preyed
upon by
Nassar
need is
real
accountability.
There
has been
very
little.
The
FBI's
report
describes
outright
lies to
the
internal
investigator
by
Abbott,
yet the
Department
of
Justice
declined
to
charge
him, and
he is
enjoying
retirement
with
impunity.
Why?
Blackmun
appears
to have
lied
outright
to
Congress,
and he
and
Penny
ignored
mandatory
child
abuse
reporting
laws,
also
with
impunity.
Why?
Even
Nassar,
in
prison,
has
evaded
full
accountability,
ducking
financial
penalties
of his
verdict.
Why? And
by the
way, why
hasn't
there
been a
full-fledged
law
enforcement
investigation
into
crimes
against
children
at the
Karolyi
Ranch?
Why?
Because,
girls.
Here's
another
bulletin:
The
Olympics
is no
happy
anniversary
for
Nassar's
victims.
"It is a
huge
trigger,"
says
Rachael
Denhollander,
whose
police
report
against
Nassar
in
August
2016
finally
triggered
the
Michigan
law
enforcement
investigation
- led by
women -
that
took him
down.
"This
time of
year is
awful
because
it
brings
back
what it
was
like,"
she
says.
"It
brings
back how
hard it
was to
speak
up, to
verbalize
it all
for the
first
time.
This is
when it
all came
out. And
the body
does
keep
score.
It
remembers
those
times of
year and
those
anniversaries.
I can't
even
imagine
trying
to
function."
The
body
keeps
score.
STOP
THE
HATE:
Michael
Che
backtracks
after
posting
rape
joke
about
Simone
Biles
To
perform
the
aerials
that
Biles
does
requires
a
wholesale
commitment
of mind
and
body.
When you
are
suspended
10 feet
in the
air,
upside
down and
twisting
at the
rate of
a
motorized
rotor,
"You
have to
be there
100% or
120%
because,
if
you're
not the
slightest
bit, you
can get
hurt,"
she said
the
other
day. "I
didn't
want to
go out
there
and do
something
dumb and
get hurt
and be
negligent.
. . .
Not
worth
it. At
the end
of the
day,
it's
like, we
want to
walk out
of here.
Not be
dragged
out of
here on
a
stretcher
or
anything."
To
perform
at that
height
and that
hazard
required
trust.
Right
now,
Simone
Biles
has
none.
And why
should
she?
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