Girl Power

Simone Biles Urges USA Gymnastics to Make Good on Promises: ‘Talking Is Easy’

“I feel like you can always talk the talk, but you have to show up and you have to prove,” she said on the “Today” show.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles had a strong finish at the U.S. Gymnastics championships, but she had even stronger words for the sport’s governing body, which has vowed to make changes in the wake of the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal. “I feel like you can always talk the talk, but you have to show up and you have to prove,” she said on the Today show. Biles’ comments came in response to USA Gymnastics spokesperson Li Li Leung’s acknowledgment of the organization’s failures. “This organization has let many people down including Simone. And historically, the organization has silenced gymnasts and that time is no more,” Leung said.

On July 30, a congressional report was published that found that USA Gymnastics, the FBI, and the United States Olympic Committee had “fundamentally failed” to protect athletes from Nassar’s abuse. Days later, a tearful Biles said, “We’ve done everything that they’ve asked us to even when we didn’t want to. And they couldn’t do one damn job.” On the Today show Tuesday, she said, “You just have to do your job at the end of the day. It would almost be better if you just prove to everyone rather than talking, because talking is easy.”