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Simone Biles opens up about why she withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics

Biles was trained by notorious women’s gymnast coach and sex offender, Larry Nassar, whose offences date back decades.

Simone Biles, 24, has recently shocked the world with her Olympic gymnastics withdrawal at the Tokyo Olympics.

She has insinuated that Larry Nassar’s unforgivable actions partially contributed to this.

Raise your hands if you've had enough of the abuse and neglect female athletes face from organisations
Image: CBS Sports

The G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Time) gymnast approached social media to share a message from fellow gymnast, Andrea Orris, who defended her decision to step out of the all-around competition.

Orris supported Biles, citing the scarring trauma she endured.

Biles shared Orris’ post on her Instagram story, along with retweets, marking the first comments she has made on social media since her announcement on Wednesday to withdraw from the competition after dropping out of the team finals.

Needless to say, the support highlights the complexities of what Biles’ endured.

Orris’s Instagram includes explicit detail on Biles’ situation:

“It makes me so frustrated to see comments about Simone not being mentally tough enough or quitting on her team,” the message begins.

“We are talking about the same girl who was molested by her team doctor throughout her entire childhood and teen years, won the world all-around championship title while passing a kidney stone, put her body through an extra year of training through the pandemic, added so much difficulty to her routines that the judges literally do not know how to properly rate her skills bc they are so ahead of her time,” the statement explains.

“All of this while maintaining her responsibilities to her endorsement deals, the media, personal relationships, etc. and some people can still honestly say ‘Simone Biles is soft. She is a quitter.’

“That girl has endured more trauma by the age of 24 than most people will ever go through in a lifetime.”

An unnamed US official told the Daily Mail that Orris’s message: “sums up everything Simone is feeling and wants to say.”

The source revealed to the outlet that: “the fact that Simone has retweeted it, shows that she agrees with every word that’s been said on her behalf.”

In 2018, 21-year-old Biles became one of more than 100 female gymnasts who publicly and credibly accused Nassar of his abuse and molestation.

Biles revealed that as a result of the ongoing trauma, she’d had suicidal thoughts that made it difficult for her to return to the infamous USA Gymnastics training facility formerly directed by Bela Karolyi.

This is where much of Biles’ abuse occurred. She said at the time on Twitter:

“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.”

In 2020, Biles and fellow gymnast Aly Raisman decried a proposed settlement of $215 million that was to go to Nassar’s victims.

In a nutshell, the settlement would be divided by at least 517 athletes who have sued USA Gymnastics.

Furthermore, the settlement would also hinder any future lawsuits against the U.S Olympic AND Paralympic Committee, and their key figures.

Some critics have had the audacity to bully Biles by calling her ‘weak’, a ‘quitter’, and even a “selfish sociopath”.

These critics ignore the fact that despite the fact she won four gold medals in the world championships in Doha in 2018 while passing a kidney stone, and won the U.S championship that year with broken toes on both her feet – all the while landing moves in her routine that other gymnasts cannot achieve.

The U.S team won silver without Biles on Tuesday in which she said,

“I have to focus on my mental health and not jeopardise my health and wellbeing.”

And if anything, Simone Biles is stronger than ever and undoubtedly a role model we will forever look up to.