After documenting training practices – now viewed as abusive – of elite gymnastics in her 1995 book, “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes,” sports journalist and author Joan Ryan found herself unable to watch the sport. “Once you know what’s going on, you can’t unknow it,” Ryan told CNN Sport. “So you can’t ignore it.” But nearly 30 years later and with the 2024 Olympics on the horizon, Ryan is “all in after not wanting to watch gymnastics for a long, long time.
At the time of the Tokyo Olympics, Biles was preparing to testify at a US Senate hearing about the FBI’s suspected mishandling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse investigation. More than 150 athletes, including Biles, said that the former USA Gymnastics team doctor sexually abused them under the guise of providing medical treatment. Allegations against Nassar were first presented in July 2015, but no arrest was made until December 2016.