Simone Biles.Photo: Simone Biles/Instagram
It was an emotional day forSimone Biles.
On Wednesday, the 24-year-old gymnastprovided testimonyat a U.S. Senate hearing on the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation. She later shared a positive post on her Instagram page, featuring a smiling shot of herself holding up the peace sign with her fingers before leaving for theAthleta Presents Gold Over America Tour.
“& I’m off for 2 months 🤍 I can’t believe I get to have my own tour. Seriously a dream come true✨,“Biles wrote alongside the image.
“Can’t wait to see all of the girls, meet all of the fans & explore all of the cities!” she added. “GOLD OVER AMERICA TOUR, I’m coming for ya 🤩 @goldoveramericatour.”
Before taking off for the tour, Biles joined fellow Team USA gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman on a panel in front of the Senate regarding the Nassar investigation.
At the hearing, the group alleged that the FBI had produced false statements in their official report and accused investigators of not documenting the survivors' claims.
Biles, who called herself “a survivor of sexual abuse” in her testimony, blamed her abuse on organizations that “failed to do their jobs” to protect her and other young female athletes.
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“I don’t want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day, in the wake — of the Larry Nassar abuse,” she tearfully added.
Biles was sure to make one thing clear: “I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” she said.
Simone Biles.Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Nassar, a former doctor for USAG, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in January 2018 after more than 150 women and girls accused him of sexual abuse over a 20-year span.
A Justice Department Inspector General report claimed the FBI did not properly respond to 2015 sexual abuse allegations made against Nassar while investigating the case, triggering Wednesday’s hearing.
With her testimony complete, Biles will now headline the Gold Over America Tour, a gymnastics competition-meets-concert event. In August, the star gymnast told PEOPLE that she and her fellow gymnasts — including recent Olympians Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner — were looking forward to demonstrating their breadth of skills with aspiring athletes.
“This will be an amazing time to give back to our communities because they’ve been so supportive and loving to us,” Biles said at the time. “It’ll be really exciting to go to all these cities and meet all the gymnasts because, at one time, we were all in their shoes coming to these tours and looking up to those gymnasts. Now it’s us. Hopefully, they take a lot of inspiration away from this tour.”
source: people.com
