Agency :
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles held back tears on Wednesday, as she told lawmakers how the FBI and US gymnastic and Olympic officials failed to stop the sexual abuse that she and hundreds of other athletes suffered from former doctor Larry Nassar.
“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” she said before the US Senate Judiciary Committee alongside fellow gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols.
Biles added that USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee failed to act while the FBI “turned a blind eye.”
The emotional hearing painted a damning picture of FBI, which botched the Nassar investigation so badly that he was able to continue abusing more victims for over a year before he was finally arrested.
FBI Director Chris Wray made no excuses and said the bureau had fired one of the agents who had falsified the details of Maroney’s 2015 interview about the abuse.
“On no planet is what happened in this case acceptable,” he said, later adding that the conduct of the agents who botched the case “was beyond the pale.”
