Simone Biles and McKayla Maroney give fiery testimony at FBI Larry Nassar failure hearing

Famous Olympic gymnast Simone Biles gave moving testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, criticizing “the whole system” which she said allowed disgraced Olympic doctor Larry Nassar to sexually assault her, as well as hundreds of other young women and girls.

“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that allowed and perpetrated his abuses,” Biles said as she suppressed tears during the Senate hearing over the FBI’s mismanagement of allegations of sexual abuse against Nassar.

Biles said USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew she was being abused by their team’s official doctor and yet did nothing.

Then, in July, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released an explosive report that detailed the FBI’s staggering failures to properly investigate the allegations against Nassar. As senior officials at the FBI field office in Indianapolis sat on their hands, more than 70 athletes continued to be abused, according to the report. Investigators then lied when faced with these emergency failures.

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Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics this summer after retiring from most of the Games, citing mental distress. Three other star gymnasts testified on Wednesday: McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who was identified as “Athlete A,” the first person to file a complaint against Nassar in the summer of 2015, citing abuse that began when she was 15 years old and led to back pain.

Raisman said the trauma caused by the abuse allegations was so severe that she often struggled with basic chores.

“I didn’t even have the energy to get up in the shower,” Raisman said. “I had to sit on the floor and wash my hair because getting up was too exhausting for me.”

“I’m 27 and my 80-year-old grandfather has more energy than me,” she added.

In fiery testimony, Maroney said she was shocked when she learned that the FBI had not simply failed to fully investigate her allegations of abuse. When officers documented her allegations over a year later, they had fabricated their own account and made “totally false claims” about what she said in an interview, she said.

“They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not just me but countless others,” Maroney said.

“What is the point of reporting abuse if our own FBI agents take it upon themselves to bury this report in a drawer,” she added. “They had legal and legitimate evidence of child abuse and did nothing.”

She said FBI agents tried to convince her that Nassar’s abuse was not that serious, describing a telephone interview with an agent who had little respect for his claims. After revealing that Nassar had digitally penetrated her into treatments that did nothing to improve her injuries, there was a period of dismissive silence before the officer said, “Is that all?”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that the FBI had fired Michael Langeman, a special supervisory agent from the Indianapolis field office who was accused of failing to adequately investigate Maroney’s charges after interviewing her in 2015.

Horowitz’s July report, without directly naming Langeman, criticized him and former Indianapolis FBI bureau chief W. Jay Abbott for mishandling the allegations and later lying to investigators.

According to the report, Abbott was considering a job with the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and discussed it with Steve Penny, who was then president of USA Gymnastics.

Raisman, who said he felt obligated by the FBI to consent to Nassar’s plea deal, criticized senior Olympic officials and FBI agents for “declining” his allegations of abuse.

She expressed her distaste for Penny and others, who she said were able to retire or quit “without explanation,” effectively rewarding them for their failure to protect children.