In a world where Simone Biles’ talent forces her to compete with herself, the young Olympic phenom explained why she decided to go compete in yet another Olympic Games despite seemingly having nothing left to prove.
While talking with Today’s Hoda Kotb, Biles revealed that this year’s Olympics are about so much more than even more medals. It’s about change. It’s about showing up and showing she won after revealing that she was abused by former Team USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar before he was convicted of his crimes.
Simone Biles’ Olympic Run Is So Much Bigger Than a Medal
“I just feel like [with] everything that happened, I had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen,” the 24-year-old explained. “Because I feel like if there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it to the side.”
Back in 2018, Biles wrote about her experience with Nassar, who abused and sexually assaulted more than 150 women and girls while employed my USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. In part, Biles said:
“I too am one of the many survivors that was sexually abused by Larry Nassar. Please believe me when I say it was a lot harder to first speak those words out loud than it is now to put them on paper.”
Biles added, “It is impossibly difficult to relive these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work towards my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused.”
She also slammed USAG for knowingly concealing Nassar’s actions. “Since I’m still here and I have quite a social media presence and platform, they have to do something,” Biles explained to Kotb on Wednesday, adding that the reason she came back was so much more than just her love of gymnastics.
“So I feel like, coming back, gymnastics just wasn’t the only purpose I was supposed to do,” she told Kotb. “I don’t think I knew [that was part of my reason], either, but I feel like gymnastics wasn’t the only thing I was supposed to come back for.”
Biles is already the most decorated gymnast of all time and plans to add to that collection this summer in Tokyo.
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