Although Simone Biles had expressed concern about former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar she was not told he was being investigated, reports the Wall Street Journal.
In a congressional testimony, the former director of the USA Gymnastics’ women’s program, Rhonda Faehn, said she learned back in 2015 that Biles, along with Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, was uncomfortable during their appointments with Nassar. She claims she relayed the information to the former president of the organization, Steve Penny who denies he was given Biles’ name. Penny claims he was informed later in mid-July of 2015 that Biles was someone he should speak to regarding Nassar.
An email exchange notes that Faehn and Penny discussed whether they should schedule an interview for Biles to speak with the private investigator USA gymnastics had hired. Since Biles was 18 at the time, Penny considered going straight to her rather than through her parents and coach. Faehn disagreed, but Penny said he would move forward with scheduling it himself — he never did. When he met with the FBI after, he only gave them Raisman and Nichols' names, leaving out Biles.
Years later, new facts still coming to light. Why do reporters care more than USAG & USOC about athlete safety? We’ll never fix the problem until we understand it. We’ll never understand it until we get a full independent investigation. How much longer will this nightmare go on? https://t.co/7jBkblOPCq
— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) November 21, 2019
Biles, who is the most decorated female gymnast in history, was never informed there even was an investigation until after she returned from winning big in the Rio Olympics. The Rio Olympics took place more than a year after the investigation began. She met with the FBI in the fall of 2016, but the governing body did not speak to the olympian regarding the abuse she experienced until she publicly announced in January 2018 that she too had been a survivor, reports USA Today.
"We continue to struggle with how and why this happened, and every time we hear something new like this, it feels like the harshest of betrayals and it is just too painful for our family to talk about openly," Biles’ parents told the WSJ.
Biles declined to speak with the WSJ, but did tweet about how hard it is to process the information.
Can’t tell you how hard this is to read and process. The pain is real and doesn’t just go away…especially when new facts are still coming out. What’s it going to take for a complete and independent investigation of both USOPC and USAG??? https://t.co/UrDXIrTng9
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) November 22, 2019
Penny is currently facing a federal criminal investigation for tampering with evidence in the Nassar case.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for child pornography charges and 175 years in Michigan state prison for seven counts of sexual assault to minors.
