Former Olympian Aly Raisman called USA Gymnastics an 'absolute disaster' after Simone Biles' exit from the team all-around competition

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Former Olympian Aly Raisman called USA Gymnastics an 'absolute disaster' after Simone Biles' exit from the team all-around competition
Aly Raisman, left, and Simone Biles, right, at the Rio Olympics. Mark Reis/Colorado Springs Gazette/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
  • Aly Raisman weighed in on Simone Biles' unexpected exit from the team all-around competition.
  • Raisman questioned whether Biles was getting enough support from USA Gymnastics.
  • "Their best athlete is struggling, and is there someone there to help her?" Raisman said.
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The two-time Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman expressed concerns that her former teammate Simone Biles wasn't getting enough support from USA Gymnastics after the star athlete dropped out of the team all-around competition at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Biles dropped out of the individual all-around competition, citing mental-health concerns.

Raisman, who competed alongside Biles at the Rio Olympics in 2016, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that the pressure on athletes is enormous.

"Having competed in two Olympics, it is so much pressure. And I think coming from the US, where we are lucky to have so many incredible successful athletes, there's this pressure that we have to win," Raisman said.

Raisman also suggested that Biles' challenges may hint at trouble behind the scenes at USA Gymnastics, which Raisman said had been "an absolute disaster for years."

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USA Gymnastics has been embroiled in controversy since the Rio Games, when Raisman, Biles, and the rest of the US women's gymnastics team swept the competition, bringing home 12 gold medals.

Around that time it was revealed that a team doctor, Larry Nassar, had sexually abused hundreds of young women, including Raisman and Biles. Raisman spoke at Nassar's sentencing in 2018. He is serving a de facto life sentence.

Former Olympian Aly Raisman called USA Gymnastics an 'absolute disaster' after Simone Biles' exit from the team all-around competition
Simone Biles of Team USA at the Women's Team Final on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Fred Lee/Getty Images

"Unfortunately, not enough has changed for us to believe in a safer future," Raisman told Tapper. "But I think this just really shows the lack of leadership at USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee. I mean, their best athlete is struggling, and is there someone there to help her? I don't know; I'm not there, so I don't know. But I think it's an important question that we should be asking, is does Simone have the support that she needs?"

She added: "It was not discussed much when I was training, and we didn't feel like we had access to mental-health experts to help us through the stress. So that's definitely something that needs to change, and they need to have that for these athletes."

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