MadameNoire
Source: Carmen Mandato / Getty
Simone Biles is letting fans get up and close personal with her new series on Facebook Watch. The four-time Olympic gold medalist is starring in Simone vs Herself, where we can watch Biles “in pursuit of being the very best she can be.”
On the latest episode of the series, Biles opened up about being sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who admitted to molesting girls that he was supposed to be providing medical treatment to. He is currently serving 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct. Over 150 women and girls came forward and accused Nassar of sexually assaulting them during a span of 20 years, CNN noted.
Biles told The Root that it wasn’t easy to come to the realization that she had been abused by Nassar.
“I thought I was being dramatic, because I was one of the lucky ones,” she said. “I didn’t get it as bad as some of the other girls I knew.”
The memories were too difficult to confront for Biles and she fell into a deep depression that caused her to “shut everybody out” and sleep all the time “because it was my way to escape reality, and sleeping was the closest thing to death for me at that point.” The Columbus, Ohio native said she still gets triggered at times but takes the healing process one day a time.
“With gymnasts, if you get injured…your ‘heal time’ is 4 to 6 weeks,” she said. “But then with something so traumatic that happens like this…it’s hard for us to process that. There’s actually no time limit or healing time for it, so you just take it day-by-day. It’s okay to say ‘I need help—and there’s nothing wrong with that.’”
Watch the latest episode of Simone vs Herself below.
