By Vanessa Cort

TWO years ago, she and three fellow gymnasts gave gut-wrenching testimony before the US Congress on what they suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar – a doctor charged with their physical well-being.

And at times, barely able to hold back her tears, Simone Biles, who blamed the USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee and the FBI for the prolonged abuse, also linked it to the mental health difficulties which caused her to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.
In a damning statement, this young athlete, hailed as the world’s greatest gymnast, said: “To be clear I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”

She was speaking on behalf of upwards of 70 young women who suffered abuse at the hands of Nassar, adding, “The scars of this horrific abuse continue to live with us all.”
While the doctor has since been charged and currently serving the equivalent of a life term in federal prison, the victims of his abuse have been largely left to cope with the trauma of it on their own.

Simone Biles took two years off to address her mental health issues and has now returned to the world of gymnastics with a ‘bang’.
She took a record-breaking eighth national title at the US Gymnastics Championship in San Jose, California in August. Her victory smashed a previous record, which has stood since 1933, and marks a decade after she first won it.

She received a standing ovation after her ‘breathtaking’ floor exercise, stunning the audience with a new ‘triple double’ routine. She also netted the highest points on the beam then continued to defy gravity by being the first woman to do the Yuchenko double Pike on the vault, which is now known as the Biles11.

It is a tribute to both the mental and physical resilience of this young woman that she was able to return to the highly competitive world of gymnastics and continue her record-breaking streak.
Her dominance in the sport is unparalleled and her triumphant return took many by surprise, especially the naysayers who decried her below par performance at the Tokyo Olympics.
According to the record books, Biles now has 26 world championship medals, 20 of them gold, to go with seven Olympic medals, including the 2016 Olympic title. Her 33 combined medals at the sport’s two biggest events are one more than what Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union achieved. And to top it all off she was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.
The enormity of what this 26-year-old super athlete has had to overcome is best understood from the words of Verywellhealth who say “Sexual assaults can be some of the most damaging forms of trauma and can significantly harm mental well-being.”

Further, figures have shown that 17-25% of women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime and by someone who they know. In addition, women are more likely than men to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their symptoms are likely to last much longer than men, who rarely suffer this form of abuse and have difficulty understanding the trauma involved.
The fact that Ms. Biles openly spoke of her mental health challenges following her trauma and sought to address it by withdrawing from the scene and seeking treatment is truly commendable and a lesson to us all. For overcome she did and her recent performances underscore this.

As she told reporters two months ago in Chicago, “I’m still continuing to work on myself and go to therapy…I think I’m in better shape than I was in 2021. I think that goes mentally and physically.”

And I leave you with these haunting words from American novelist, Sarah Dessen, describing a victim in her book, ‘Just Listen’, “She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was in her eyes. Despite the thick make-up, they were still dark-rimmed, haunted and sad. Most of all though, they were familiar. The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all. I’d spent a summer with those same eyes – scared, lost, confused – staring back at me. I would have known them anywhere.”