Simone Biles, 23, celebrated her birthday on March 14 and with that came a lot of congratulatory messages and tweets. However, one of the birthday messages she decided to respond to was that of USA Gymnastics.
According to the tweet, USA Gymnastics said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time. We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!”. To this tweet, Simone Biles replied “How about you amaze me and do the right thing… have an independent investigation”.
Simone Biles reaction is as a result of the case regarding the former USA Gymnastics national medical adviser, Larry Nasser, who also happens to be a doctor at Michigan State University. Larry Nasser has been sentenced to multiple prison terms equating to life sentence, for his crime of sexually abusing over 300 females, including Simone Biles, since the ’90s.
In 2019, an investigation by the Congress revealed that the USA Gymnastics, the FBI, the U.S Olympic Committee, and the Michigan State University, all had the chance to stop Larry Nasser’s abuse but failed to do so. The report of the investigation also stated that the failure to stop Nasser’s abuse led to the continued abuse of more girls.
In reaction to her tweet, a lot of people thanked the youngster for using this medium to add her voice to the issue. In 2019, Simone Biles spoke about the abuse and how much it affected her, during an interview with actress, Priyanka Chopra.
According to her, “I’m still going through things in everyday life that I still need to go to therapy for,” Biles explained. “It all comes back to my childhood and everything that’s happened to me being sexually abused. I was very depressed, I never left my room, I was sleeping all the time. I told one of my lawyers, ‘I sleep all the time because it’s the closest thing to death.’
However, Biles stated that she is a stronger woman now and she wants to use her story to encourage young girls.
