I wouldn’t allow my daughter on US gymnastics team, says Simone Biles

The world’s greatest gymnast has said she would not allow a daughter of hers to compete for the US team.

Simone Biles says US Gymnastics has not done enough to stop sexual abuse

The world’s greatest gymnast has said she would not allow a daughter of hers to compete for the US team, arguing that not enough has been done to stop the sexual abuse of young athletes.

Simone Biles, 23, was one of hundreds of competitors sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the former US gymnastics team doctor who three years ago was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison after being convicted of child sexual assault and possessing child pornography.

Speaking on the US current affairs show 60 minutes at the weekend, Biles said USA Gymnastics had not done enough over the affair.

“Oh, it’s far from over,” said Biles. “There’s still a lot of questions that still need to be answered. Just who knew what, when? (USA Gymnastics) have failed so many athletes, and most of us under age. You guys don’t think that’s a bigger problem?”

Asked if she would allow a daughter of hers to compete for the American team, she said: “No. Because I don’t feel comfortable enough, because they haven’t taken accountability for their actions and what they’ve done. And they haven’t assured us that it’s never going to happen again.”

Asked if she and other athletes had been failed by USA Gymnastics, Biles said: “100 per cent. We bring them medals. We do our part. You can’t do your part in return? It’s just sickening.”

In a statement to 60 Minutes, USA Gymnastics CEO Li Li Leung said: “We recognise how deeply we have broken the trust of our athletes and community, and are working hard to build that trust back.”

Biles is light years ahead of her competition. She has won 27 international titles, including four Olympic gold medals, and it is eight years since anyone beat her in an all-round competition, where gymnasts compete on several apparatus

Her achievements were already plentiful but it was at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that she became a household name. Winning her four gold medals, she recorded the highest scores on vault, balance beam, on which she had the only score over 15 in the finals, and the floor.

Her feats earned her the honour of being the US flag carrier during the Games closing ceremony.

Yet even as her sport basked in her achievements, US gymnastics was already convulsing over the allegations against Nassar, 57.

It is now known that his abuse stretched back to the early 1990s, but those that first complained about his behaviour were ignored and their complaints were not properly investigated.

It was in 2015 that USA Gymnastics sacked Nassar when it “learnt of athlete concerns” about the doctor. That led to a surge in young women coming forward to complain about his conduct.

60 Minutes hosted three female international gymnasts in February 2017 when they said that they had been abused and described the national team training camp as being an “emotionally abusive environment”.

Biles later came forward to say that she had also been a victim of Nassar, while several of the women said that they had been sexually assaulted by Nassar when they were children.

Biles had intended that Tokyo 2020 would be her swan song in international competition, and told 60 Minutes that the postponement of the Games because of the pandemic caused her problems.

“I just sat there and I was like, I really don’t know how I’m gonna do this,” she said.

“Like, another year out? I don’t think it’s possible for me at this point mentally. Pushing through those (training sessions) when I had in my mind, ‘in three months I’ll be done’ — how do you push back for another year?”

Biles hopes to compete in this year’s rearranged games in Japan and says she will then retire.

The Times