American gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman were questioned by the United States Congress on Wednesday September 15th.
They denounced the inaction of sports authorities and the federal police to prevent sexual assaults by ex-United States women's team doctor Larry Nassar on young athletes for two decades.
"We have been let down and we owe an explanation," voice broken with emotion, Simone Biles, 24, said before a Senate committee tasked with looking into the FBI's "breach of duty" in the conduct of the investigation. Larry Nassar, 58, is serving a life sentence after being heavily convicted in 2017 and 2018 for sexually assaulting more than 250 gymnasts, mostly minors, committed within the Gymnastics Federation at the University of 'State of Michigan and in a gymnastics club.
An inspection report from the Department of Justice, an independent body, was very harsh on the local FBI office in Indianapolis, where the boss of the gymnastics federation first reported the charges against the osteopath in July 2015. The agents "made many fundamental mistakes in (investigating these charges) and violated several FBI rules," according to the report.
"False statements"
“I hold Larry Nassar accountable and I hold accountable an entire system that allowed and perpetrated these abuses, the American Gymnastics Federation and the United States Olympic Committee,” said Simone Biles, a huge multi-medal gold champion. McKayla Maroney, she focused her anger on the agent of the local FBI office who had taken his testimony, containing very precise details of the assaults, and who had reacted with "silence and contempt."
"Not only did the FBI not do an investigation, but when (federal agents) finally made a report 17 months later, they made false statements about what I said," the accused said. 25-year-old gymnast, who had been assaulted when she was 13. By falsifying her testimony, "these FBI agents committed a crime," she said, denouncing the absence of sanctions taken by the Department of Justice which chose not to prosecute these police officers.
FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized to the victims of Larry Nassar, admitting that "the fundamental mistakes made in 2015 and 2016 should never have been." He also affirmed that various reforms recommended by the report of the general inspectorate had been undertaken within the FBI, in particular a better training of the agents on sexual violence.
