I feel as though throughout this the past 10 years gymnastics has always been there, whether I wanted it to be or not. In 2012, when the world was introduced to Gabby Douglas and her story, being a black lower middle-class girl who had a dream I was there. I believed the story, and thought it was amazing, I watched as the world witnessed the “flying squirrel” and her story of rising through the ashes and becoming the most amazing gymnast of that time. I watched the gold medals being placed on their necks, defying the patriarchy and proving that if I worked hard enough, I could do ANYTHING.

In 2016 I watched Simone Biles do her floor routine proving once again that this was about talent, not race, gender, or social status. The Olympics for me were almost a safe haven; there was not as much of a racial or gender bias as the real world. You got there by working hard. You couldn’t just be a white man and have it given to you. You had to work to get there.

It was incredible for me sending my sister off to this famous gymnastics camp, and how proud of her I was when she made the TOPs team and got to train with the national coaching staff, and sleep in the bunks where these legends would be the next week, or had been the week prior.

When I think back on it, knowing what I know about the ranch, it was the perfect place for a person like Nassar to fester and become what he has become. The culture was intense and competitive and it was a place like none other in the world. With the high amount of physical and emotional stress, it seems the gymnasts could not recognize that what was going on was assault. Because of the high-pressure environment, and intensity of the sport, many things that wouldn’t happen in the real world happened at USA Gymnastics.  I think that this experience, while traumatizing and heartbreaking, has been a wakeup call for many people who looked the other way at many other questionable events that happened so frequently in the gymnastics world.  I feel so shocked and appalled at all that has been going on, learning about the Nassar allegations, because I  feel like I knew these girls, and knew their stories, and now I am feeling like the story I thought I knew was not at all true. It was manipulated. I was manipulated. Something dark and sinister was taking place, while I was focusing on the glory.

I feel a little guilty, having celebrated their victories when I now know the price that was paid to achieve it. I also feel stressed for my sister, because I know that she spends a good portion of her life in this sport. I love her so much and want to be sure that she is safe and emotionally healthy, even while spending so much of her time in the environment of gymnastics.

I know that these traumatic and horrifying events could have been prevented. The girls could have been spared the agony and pain they had to go through. To help ensure an event like this never happens again, I think that the Senate needs to create a bipartisan panel to investigate the USA Gymnastics abuse, focused specifically on preventing anything like this in the future. This idea was suggested by Shaheen and Sen. Joni Ernst and supported by Nassar survivor and two time Olympian Aly Raisman, who says USA Gymnastics is “100% responsible” for allowing Nassar to get away with this abuse for so many years. This panel would dive into the history of USA Gymnastics and how an event like this was even able to happen for so many years. It is not only Nassar; it is that so many people knew about it and said nothing. In having an investigation into USA Gymnastics,  the Senate will do as much as it can to protect these girls and this sport from ever experiencing something like this again. This will not take back what happened, but it is a step into getting these girls the justice they deserve.