0 job is to protect are getting away with this? this is not justice. enough is enough. i ask you to hear my voice. please doe all that is in your power to ensure these individuals are held responsible and accountable for ignoring my initial report. for lying about my initial report and for covering up for a child molester. in closing, i would like to express my deep gratitude to the united states senate a very power institution that from the very beginning has fought for us rather than against us. thank you. i welcome any questions. >> thank you. miss nickols. >> thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. i want to thank you for your commitment to pry tortizing athlete safety. i was named as gymnast two and previously identified by athlete a. this did not happen to gymnast two or athlete a. it happened to me, maggie nick -- nichols. i was elite level gymnast by the age of 13. by the time i was 14, i made the national team. i traveled internationally for four years and in 2015 at the world championship, representing our country where i won a gold medal. my olympic dreams ended in the summer of 2015. i went onto compete at the university of oklahoma where i was named first team all american and an eight time national champion. i reported my abuse over six years ago and so my family and i received few answers and have even more questions about how this was allowed to occur and why dozens of other little girls and women at michigan state had to be abused after our reporting. in sacrificing my childhood for the chance to compete for the united states, i am haunted by the fact that even after i reported my abuse, so many women and girls had to suffer at the hands of larry nassar. usa gymnastics and the fbi have betrayed me and those abused by larry nassar after i reported. it's a well documented in the oig report. after i reported my abuse, my family and i were told by their former president to keep quiet and not say anything that could hurt the fbi investigation. we now know there was a no real fbi investigation occurring. while my complaints with the fbi, larry nassar continued to abuse women and girls. during this time the fbi issued no search warrants and made no arrests. i was treated differently by usag. not only did the fbi fail to conduct a thorough investigation but they also knew that usag and the u.s. opc created a false narrative where larry nassar was allowed to retire. with his reputation in tact and return to michigan state university thus allowing dozens of little girls to be molesticed. failed to report proper authorities and the special agent in charge was seeking to become the new director of security. a job opportunity raised by steve penny. afterwards, fbi agent in charge of the investigation lied to oig investigators about what had happened. this conduct by these fbi agents including the special agent in charge who are held in high regard and expected to protect the public is unacceptable, disgusting and shameful. this committee produced a report in 2019, a courage of survivors, a call to action. it found the u.s. olympic committee and the national governing body failed to adequately respond to credible allegations against nassar. similarly, the oig report found that senior fbi officials lied to the inspector general, engaged in serious conflicts of interest and try to cover up one of the biggest child sex abuse scandals. both reports uncovered serious and possibly misconduct at the highest level of the olympic committee. despite these findings, in accountable has occurred. why would the fbi agents lie to oig investigators. why would the fbi not properly document evidence that was received. why would the fbi agent be interested in the usag presidency. these questions remain unanswered. survivors have a right to know why their jeopardy was placed into the well being of these individuals who choz not to do their job. to date no one has faced charges other than larry nassar. this hearing is one of the last opportunities to get justice. we ask that you do what's in your power to engage those in wrong doing are held accountable under the law. >> thank you. >> i want fo begin by thanking the judiciary committee, including chairman durbin and ranking member grassley for their commitment to seeking the truth for the hundreds, if not thousands who were systemically abused by larry nassar and for this committee's diligence to demand accountability regarding federal law enforcement's misconduct. i want to express my gratitude to my friends and teams to share their stories and continue for justice and reform. over the past fi years it's become painfully clear how a survivor's healing is affected by the handling of their abuse. it disgusts me that we're still fighting for the most basic answers and accountable over six years later. in 2015, it was known that at least six national team athletes had been abused by nassar. there was even one of the athletes that was abused on film. given our abusers unfettered access to children, stopping him should have been a priority. instead, the following occurred. it took over 14 months for the fbi to contact me despite my many requests to be interviewed by them. the records established that steve penny, fbi agent jay abbot and their subordinates worked to conceal nassar's crimes. steve penny arranged with the fbi to conduct my interview at the olympic training center where i was under the control and observation of usa gymnastics. the day of my interview, steve penny flew to the olympic training center and made sure i was aware he was there. i felt pressure by the fbi to con sent to nassar's plea deal. the agent made me feel my criminal case wasn't worth pursuing. special agent in charge of investigating nassar melt steve penny for beers to discuss job opportunities in the olympic movement. another fbi agent worked with steve penny to determine jurisdiction without interviewing the survivors. i was watched multiple high ranking officials at usag, resign or retire without explanation of how they may have contributed to the problem. some of whom were thanked for their service and rewarded with bonus money. my reports of abuse were not only buried but also mishandled by federal law enforcement officers who failed to follow their most basic duties. the fbi and others within both usag and usopc knew that nassar molested children and did nothing to restrict his access. steve penny and any usag employee could have walked a few steps to file a report. with the indiana child protective services since they shared the same building. instead, they quietly allowed nassar to slip out the side door knowingly allowing him to continue his work at msu, sparrow hospital, a usag club and even run for school board. he found more than 100 new victims to molest. it was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter. why did none of these organizations warn anyone? usag and uopc have a long history of enabling abuse by turning a blind eye. both organizations knew of nassar's abuse long before it became public. although you wouldn't know that by reading their press releases which would have you and their corporate sponsors believe that athletes safety comes first. we know first hand these organizations and their public statements are not to be trusted. they claim they want accountability but seek to restrict which staff can be interviewed, which documents can be examined and claim attorney-client privilege over and over again. this so-called investigation these organizations orchestrated were not designed to provide the answers we so critically need. why are we left to guess wla they deliberately ignored reported abuse. was it to protect the value of the sponsorships, the l.a. 28 bid, their own jobs, to avoid criminal liability? perhaps. why must we speculate when the facts are obtainable and the stakes are so high. why would duly sworn federal law enforcement officers ignore report of abuse by a doctor across state lines and country borders? for a future job opportunity or were there additional sin century tifrs and pressures. why must we speculate when the facts are obtainable and the stakes are so high. just as it is naive to assume the problem only rests with nassar, it's unrealistic to think we can grasp the full extent of culpability without understanding how and why usag close to ignore abuse for decades and why the interplay among these three organizations led the fbi to willingly disregards our reports of abuse. without knowing who knew what went, we cannot identify owl enablers and determine whether they are still in positions of power. we just can't fix a problem we don't understand. we can't understand the problem unless and until we have all of the facts. if we don't do all we can to get these facts, the problems we are here to address will persist and we are deluding ourselves if we think other children can be spared the normalization of abuse that i and so many others had to endure. i thank you for your time, your commitment and your genuine concern for those survivors who relied on the fbi to do anything. i welcome any questions and comments and i will answer them to the best of my ability. >> thank you. i been in a lot of committee hearings. i can't remember compelling testimony like we heard this morning ever before because you had the courage to come up and tell the world what happened to you. it is heartbreaking to think what you have been through. i thank you for being here. we have a job to do and we know it. it begins with this hearing. when it comes to abuse cases such as those that you have endured personally. there is a historic element here in that your audience including young people like yourself who are victims and survivors themselves. i have one minute in question and my question basically to the panel, anyone who cares to respond. what would you say to other young athletes who may be suffering in silence or wrestling with decision about whether to speak out? miss raisman. >> the first thing that i would want to say to anybody that's watching this that's suffering in silence or has been through something really traumatic is i support them. i believe them. just be patient with yourself, bekind to yourself. know i'm struggling too. i'm still navigating how to heal from this. healing is a roller coaster. there's some days i feel better. there's days i feel like i'm taking a bunch of steps backwards. that's okay. we're all human. we're all doing the best we can. i would encourage who is out there that's listening to tell someone when ever they feel comfortable and it's so important to have a good support system and a community around you. if you're someone out there that doesn't have a good support system, that's okay. sometimes it can take some time to find a good support system. i encourage you to not give up until you find that support that you deserve and just remember that i believe you. i support you. you are not alone and i encourage you to ask for help. >> anyone else? >> i would want to say they need know their abuse is enough. for so long we questioned because somebody wasn't fully validating us that we doubted what happened to us. that will always make the healing process take longer. i think the second that i gave that to myself is when i really began to heal and when i really began to get my voice back. that took a long time pop to reach out to other survivors and speak to them and hear their stories is what continues to help me heal and hearing all these girls speak is really what continues to make me want to be here today and help others. >> and you are. >> thank you. >> senator grassley. >> before i ask my first question in regard to something miss raisman raised, we have not forgotten why these people haven't been prosecuted. i want to put in the record a letter that i wrote the attorney general on july 16th to request that the justice department revisit its decision not to prosecute the fbi employees who failed you, all of you and a lot of you that aren't here as well. >> without objection. >> thank you very much. first of all, it's not enough just to commend you for your bravery of speaking out but by your speaking out you're helping not only young women but where ever there might be the abuse that you talk about and it's very difficult, i'm sure, in this public setting for you to speak that and we felt that from you speaking out about it. it's got to be a hard job but thank you for coming forward. i'm going to ask questions of any one of you or all you have. you decide how you want to respond to this. i hope one person will speak up. what can you tell congress and witnesses testifying today about the additional step, if any, that we could take to ensure we better protect child athletes. we heard about the agents and the fbi not doing its job or even lying to us and you heard about a bill that i am proposing but beyond those things, do you have anything you'd like to add that congress should hear from you to protect child athletes? >> i think it's really important to look at the connection between the fbi, usa gymnastic and the united states olympic and paralympic committee. we must fully understand every singling thing that happened. usa gymnastics say they have done investigations but they were not independent and the scope of the investigation matters. nobody should be offer limits. nothing should be off limits. it should go back decades. that's not been done. it's something we have been asking for for years and years. i personally would like to see all three organizations completely investigated and the scope of it matters because until we know all the facts, it's just guess work. i don't want to be guessing they will be okay. i want to know it 100% certainty that somebody that looked the other way for us isn't still in a position of power. i think the investigation is crucial. until that, i don't have any faith that things will get better in the sport. >> okay. if no one else wants to go beyond that, i'll go to my last question. i hope this isn't something so sensitive you don't feel you can talk about it, but do you have any thoughts or inputs to share about safe sport, national nonprofit entity that's been tasked by congress with handling allegations from amateur athletes? >> i personally think safe sport is -- i'm trying to be respectful here. i don't like safe sport. i hear from many survivors that they report their abuse and it's like playing hot potato where someone else kicks it over to somebody else and they don't hear back for a really long time. i think a really big issue is that safe sport is funded by usa gymnastics or the united states olympic me. if you're safe sport and you are funded by the organization you're investigating, it's not -- they are likely not going to do the right thing. i think it needs to be completely separate. i think safe sport needs a lot of work and i know from many survivors and my mom has personally reported things to safe sport and we followed up so many times. they say we can't help you or they either ignore us or pass it onto somebody else. the person they pass it onto they kick it back to them. it's a mess. the priority doesn't seem to be safety and well being. it seems to be protecting usa gymnastics and keep the p.r. >> i agree. nobody really wants to be held accountable and nobody really knows who to hold accountable. i think in order to help, there needs to be a specific person who is in charge of protecting these athletes and it falls on them when they're not. instead of it being passed around and every one just being like, we don't know what happened, whose job was that? there needs to be a specific job for that. >> thank you. i now call on senator leahy and remind me colleagues we try to make this question period concise. please do your best. >> i want to thank you all for having the courage to come here today. i can only imagine how painful it is to relive these experiences, but i think that the resilience, perseverance you are showing the world today is incredibly aadmirable. i hope young survivors who see this who feel powerless to tell their stories will feel, yes, this is the example they should tell it. i think it has to be far more than just telling the stories. obviously, like senator durbin, i've been on this committee for a long time. i cannot think of anything so moving. we're going to hear senators and others talk about accountability and justice today, but what was genuine accountability look like to you? when do you feel justice will be done for the injustices you suffer? that really should be the question we have today. i'd like to hear from all of you on that. when you feel justice will be done and what does genuine accountability look like? >> you want to try that one? >> yeah, sure. >> first going back to i probably sound like a broken record but i'm going to try hopefully today will be the one that this time i say it, it actually happens. for me accountability looks like, first of all, i think that obviously this should have never happened. one time being abused is too many. one child being abused is too many. i think a complete and full independent investigation of fbi, usag olympics and the united states olympic and paralympic committee. i also think there needs to be, when we think about a new usa gymnastics and paralympic committee, survivors need to be in the room. we need to feel like we are not adversaries to usa gymnastics. i imagine we all feel it's crazy for me to try to wrap my ahead around all we're asking for is that when a child goes into gymnastics or goes to school that they can be spared abuse. the fact we have been treat bid adversaries by so many organizations and our abuse has been diminished. we have been victim shamed online over and over again. we have been gas lit. we have been made the feel we don't matter by these organizations. i never want another child to feel that way again. mykalya mentioned this so so often survivors question themselves. they distrust how they feel. that's something i went through and especially because the fbi made me feel like my abuse didn't count and it wasn't a big deal. i remember sitting there with the fbi agent and him trying to convince me it wasn't that bad. it's taken me years of therapy to realize that my abuse was bad. it does matter and i think it's really important to also have education and prevention in the sport as well. i don't see the organizations doing enough to have every single staff member, parent, guardian doing enough. every single person should be made to recognize emotional, physical, sexual, mental abuse. everything in between. if we don't have investigation and education and prevention then this problem and this nightmare will keep happening over and over again. >> anybody else? should i assume you all agree with that. >> yes. >> so do i. thank you. i want to say. >> sorry. one more to add. we also want to see them be federally prosecuted to fullest extent because they need to be held accountable. >> thank you. >> as former prosecutor, i agree with that. thank you. >> thank you. i want to thank these four survivors joining us today. i want to tell you how much i respect and admire your courage and for sounding the alarm on a system that's abused and neglected you, that was supposed to protect you. your stories are difficult for you to tell, i know. it's taken -- it's extraordinarily important for us to hear it as hard as it is for you and us to hear. i believe your courage will inspire a generation of women to speak out that have been abused. we are all proud of your courage and the example that you set for other young women. i hope your courage in speaking out will be a step of righting the wrongs that have led to the injustices so we can ensure these mistakes will never ever be repeated. thank you for shining the light on this issue and for add voe indicating for victims across the country. as you know, you are not alone. too often those allegations are down played, slow walked or ignored. our job is to make sure your sacrifices, your trauma and nightmare have not been in vain. thank you. >> thank you senator cornyn. senator feinstein. >> thank you. for me this was a deja vu. i listen to these young women. i saw their courage. i saw that you are llwillingnes to step forward and i'm hopeful we'll be able to take some action. i would like to present a letter that's sent to the chief executive officer of the united states senate for safe sport, which has eight specific things. this is on behalf of senator murray and myself. if i may put that in. >> without objection. >> i really hope that no one goes through the horrors that you have experienced. i hope that when and i believe we will take action that this is enough for you to put this behind you in your life. you could lead a life that's just as full and happy as is possible and that we do our job and see that we prevent this from ever happening again. i want to thank you so much. i had the occasion to sit down with you, at least two of you around my conference table and see the tears and those days are now behind and i'm convinced that this senate will act and i thank you so much because you are played a big role, if and when we do in making it happen. thanks. >> senator cruz. >> i want to thank each of you for being here. each i spire millions across the dploeb. millions look to your athletic achievements. you have all stood on the biggest stages in world and done extraordinary things. things that take your breath away. that amaze children and adults. you were able to do that through tens of thousands of hours of incredible hard work. yet that work pales to the strength it took to come here and be public. you could have stayed silent. you could have avoided the scrutiny, the pain and i will say watching you testify this morning, you can see the pain in each of you sharing that story. that courage that you demonstrated by going tub lick, by reporting this abuse, by shining a light, that courage matters and it's making a difference in the lives of others. the system failed you. what happened to you was grotesque, it was criminal, it was abusive. it was evil. i'm the father of two little girls who are both athletes. not at the level of each of you but what you experience is every parent's nightmare that when your child, when you entrust your child to coaches, doctors or trainers, you're trusting your kids will be taken care of. not that they will be abused and targeted. i want to thank you. i want to thank you for calling out the abuse, calling out the system that failed you and that system needs to change. that system needs to be held accountable so that this doesn't happen again. i want to thank you for the kids that won't face abuse because of your courage and each of you, aly, maggie, mykala, simone. you're a texas and houstonian, the entire state of texas is immensely proud of all of you. i got to say right now, at home, there's a little girl or little boy who is watching this who may be facing their own personal hell. maybe facing abuse whether in sports or some other context. a monster who is doing unspeakable things to them. that little girl, that little boy, i hope sees your courage and realizes that she can come forward and say something too. that he can call out the person who is hurting them. thank you for your courage. it makes an enormous difference. >> thank senator cruz. senator whitehouse. >> thank you. i want to first thank our colleague senator bloomenthal who has been so persistent in this for so long and thank you for holding this hearing. i want to compliment all of our witnesses for the stunning clarity and grace of your testimony here. your quest for accountability is 100% justified. thank you for pursuing it. we will endevour to help you in that pursuit. it's astonishing and disturbing how many adults let you dow and failed at one of the most basic responsibilities of adulthoods which is to look out for children, take care of them, behave properly and here entrust them. i guess on behalf of adults everywhere, we owe you an apology. what you have done today is impressive and it will make a difference and i'm grateful to you for stepping up the way you have. thank you. >> thank you senator whitehouse. senator holly is on via webex. you'll see him on the screen in a moment. i hope. senator hawley. perhaps senator cotton is on. in their absence, senator klobuchar. >> excellent. thank you very much, all of you. like my colleagues, i want to express my gratitude to you. as a fellow minnesotan i'm grateful to you maggie for sharing your story with the committee today. all of you and the oh and women and girl who is make up the gymnastics community continue to inspire us. i was one of the geeks up at 4:00 a.m. watching the olympics live this time. to think when you fall off the balance beams and get back on or grab the bars when you have an injury or perform some floor exercise that no one knows was possible, to all of us watching, that's the courage, something we could never imagine doing but the real courage is what you're doing today. your bravery is on full display. as a former prosecutor, i know first hand, i've seen it how hard it is to testify before a room of strangers. this time you're doing it in front of the u.s. senate. what you're doing is part of your own healing, but it is also part of healing for kids you'll never meet. little girls and boys that may be are aware of your fame and what you have done. they may not ever be aware of what you are doing today. i think you have heard it from so many of my colleagues that have been leading on these bills. more must be done. more oversight, more accountability. by coming forward today, you are going to make that difference. we can make sure on your behalf that this never happens again. thank you for representing the women and girls of usa gymnastics so well on the world stage but most importantly, so well today. >> we'll try more time with senator cotton. are you with us? >> yes, i'm here, mr. chairman. >> please proceed. >> thank you. i will take a moment to thank each of the witnesses. the four of you have done remarkable things in your lives. you've represented united states of america expertly on the global stage. perhaps even more impressive is the courage that each of you have displayed in coming forward about the abuse you faced. in doing so, you weren't just taking on one terrible abuser but facing down an entire system. this isn't the first time that we had hearings on this issue. in 2017 and 2018, for example, the senate heard from others who faced similar abuse, including jordan who a teammate to several you have but now the head coach of university of arkansas. unfortunately, for too long, the system failed the very women that it was supposed to protect. the report by inspector general horwitz makes clear there's individuals inaction and incompetence and worse enabled the system and should be head accountable. i thank you each of you. >> thank you, senator cotton. senator coons. >> thank you for holding this hearing. each you have are adults now. you are grown women. you demonstrated your strength, your determination, your percent -- persistence in testifying here today. we know you were victimized as young girls and we have failed you. the united states olympic committee, usa gymnastic, those in federal law enforcement who were responsible for taking your horrible testimony and translating it into prompt and decisive action to protect other children and to secure justice for you. thank you for the courage it takes to testify and to insist on justice. thank you to senator bloomenthal for your persistent and effective engagement in this. we will next turn to hearing the director of the fbi and the inspector general about what has been found by the inspector general and what action will be taken next. i want to briefly share one of the most concerning parts of what you shared with us today was about your initial interviews with the fbi. where it was conducted, how it was conducted that you were left alone as a teenage girl to have an interview by phone with an fbi agent who somehow suggested what you were testifying to wasn't horrific or tried to persuade you that it wasn't that bad. under a circumstance that made it clear that the person responsible for usa gymnastics might be present and might have compromised the interview. the whole way in which all of your interviews was conducted was just awful. sadly, that's been the experience for millions of victims of child sexual abuse over decades in the united states. the positive thing i just wanted to share with you today is that foryears now, there's been a national network of child advocacy centers. there's one in each county in my state which brings together trauma informed child welfare professionals and law enforcement to make sure that victims are only interviewed once. that they are interviewed in appropriate settles, they are interviewed in way that respects and recognizes the trauma and abuse they suffered and that ensures that your horrible experiences in terms of those initial sper -- interviews and it's been compoundsed. we are working on that system. senator blunt and i will soon reintroduce a bill that will re-authorize this and double the funding for a national network of 880 of these child advocacy centers all over the country. i want to share with you and any victim of abuse or the families who know about their child's abuse who might be watching that what happened to you should not and need not happen again. there are professional trauma informed child welfare centered opportunities around the country to seek justice. miss maroneyi can see it has impacted you. thank you for your courage, your persistence and your demands for justice. thank you. >> thank you, senator coons. i believe senator bloomenthal is next. >> you are heroes and stars and role models for many young men and women around the country and your courage is impressive to all of us on this committee but so is your grace and daring. your grace and daring as people and your determination not to be defined by the abuse that you suffered and to seek help which should also be a model to others. number of you have made reference to the therapy that you have sought, which also takes courage, but you have been involved in a sport that involves injuries, physical injuries and the abuse you suffered involves emotional injuries that you're seeking to treat as you would any physical injury. i would like to ask you, i know at least one of the athletes in the room was abused after july 2015. let me just ask each of you, you can answer yes or no whether you know of a leets that were abused by larry nassar after july 2015 during the 18 month period when the fbi nids nothing. you can just say yes, you do, if you want to tell me how many, if you know. if not, just yes or no. >> yes. >> kalie lorenz is here today and she was abused after i spoke out. >> yes. >> yes. i have met many of them and i also want to be clear that in the time that i had reported my abuse to usa gymnastic, i followed up many, many times. my mom would follow up for me a lot of the time because i'm sure as you can imagine it was so heart for me but also i was so scared because of the positions of power and we followed up so many times and we were constantly told they were working on it. the most important thing was to keep it confidential, not to tell anyone. they even told me not to talk about it with makala, give her breathing room. i thought it was being handled. i can't express to you when you're told by the president of usa gymnastics they they were handling it, they got it. i didn't know they were beginning do mishandle it the way they have and they tell you they are talking to fbi, i believed them. i can't tell you how horrifying it is to meet young girls who look up to me, who watch me compete in the olympics and tell me that they went to see nassar because of me and my teammates because they want tods see the olympic doctor. i guess in his office, nassar's office he had some photos of us. they went to see him because they thought it was so cool to have the same doctor as us. that's been one of the hardest and most devastating parts for me is so many survivors suffer with guilt and shame. it takes everything i have to work on not taking the blame for that because it is horrific and it's horrible to meet them and to know that over 100 victims could have been spared the abuse if all we needed was one adult to do the right thing. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i join all my colleagues in thanking each of you for coming forward. we know there are young kids who look up to you as the fantastic athletes and gymnasts that you are. as they get older, i hope they realize the courage that so many, you say courage, you coming forward tole us your stories and the experiences of abuse that you suffered. i think -- all people who are suffered abuse, it's really hard for them to talk to anybody, to talk to anybody about it. it's hard enough for you to report your abuse, to be very specific about what happened to you but then to be shunted i side and get feeling the people you rely on to do their jobs, they thought it was not a big deal. i think that compounds the horrific abuse that you experienced. you're right to demand better from the fbi, the usa gymnastics and others, including us in this hearing today. to show people that reports of abuse should be taken seriously and those who come forward, as you did, should be believed. period. your courage is shining a light on a culture of complicity, exploitation and abuse of power and inspire others to come forward. i acknowledge how many courage it took for you to report in first place, to have to undergo the horrifying experiences once again to tell perfect strangers what happened to you and to not be taken seriously. that is what we need to change. you have to undergo therapy. mad prevent these kind of abuses from happening in the first place and that is where of course if it happens we need to cause it accountable. thank you for coming forward. >> thanks, senator. we probably have another 10 or 15 minutes and i don't know if we need a break now or want to go straight through to the end. anybody looking for a break? >> we're good. >> okay. senator booker. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you as well for being here today, it took tremendous courage. i'm not sure how many people fully realize the burden on survivors in america to come forward and recall what happened to them. it is in a sense not just recalling the trauma and the violence and the pain, but it is as you all well know being forced to relive it. and for that, i'm deeply grateful that you would sit here in a room of strangers in front of powerful people and again relive that trauma. and i also know you didn't come here for our kind words or our proudness or our empathy. you came here for justice. you came here for action. you've heard words literally for years. and you're still fighting. you are fighting against a systemic problem in our country that isn't just in sports. we've seen it from church institutions to the boy scouts. when you talk about pedophilia all the way to sexual assault, we see it in diners, workplaces, factory floors. and you all as athletes are doing something in a tradition that is to me what has helped to call the conscience of our country forward and expand our moral imagination to stop injustices of other sorts from people who endured outrageous realities like billie jean king who used their platforms not to try to get individual attention but to try to change this nation and make it more just. so i'm grateful that we are at a point where we are such bipartisan determination in this town, it is not often enough, but here we have bipartisan determination of some of my most respected colleagues to deliver what you really came for, which is action. i say that to tell you also that we all know that the road to change, real change, systemic change, not just in sport, but in our culture that seems to tolerate such a high level of this sort of violence, that it will take time. and one saying always rings in my head, that the only thing necessary for injustice to continue is for good people to do nothing. and you all have seen that firsthand. so i've heard you before be asked a question to media to even in this institution today, do you have any words for other survivors. i would like to simply ask the question of you to answer -- to put the point and the light where it belongs. it shouldn't take something directly happening to us to trigger our empathy and our action. and maybe i would like to know if you have any words for americans who a midst a country where this violence happens every single day, is there something that you'd like to say to us that we are playing a part in a culture that allows this to happen. >> i would like to say that i personally don't think that people realize how much experiencing a type of abuse is not something that one just suffers in the moment. it carries on with them sometimes for the rest of their lives. for example being here today is taking everything i have. my main concern is i hope that i have the energy to just walk out of here. i don't think people realize how much it affects us, how much the ptsd, how much the trauma impacts us. and for every survivor it is different. healing looks different for every survivor, the aftermath looks very different. for me, just to paint a picture, i used to train some days seven hours a day when i was training for the olympics. and processing my abuse affected me so much and it is still something i struggle with that i can remember when i first shared my story publicly, for a very, very long time, i didn't even have the energy to stand up in the shower. i would have to sit on the floor and wash my hair because standing up was too exhausting for me. i couldn'teven go for a ten minute walk outside and this is someone who has competed in two olympic games. and there are times where i feel like i forget what i'm saying, i feel like my mind isn't working, i feel like i have no energy at all. i'm 27 years old and my 80-year-old grandfather has more energy than i do. and i've often wondered is this -- am i ever going to feel better. and it has affected my health. in the last couple of years, i've had to be taken in an ambulance because i pass out and i'm so sick from just the trauma. and it might not even be after a hearing like this, it just hits me out of the blue. and so i think that it is important for people to understand how much, you know, even if we're not crying how much we are all struggling. and how much survivors are suffering because people often say, well, why did you just come forward now. because it is terrifying to come forward, the fear of not being believed, but also because it affects us so much. and sometimes it is impossible just to say the words out loud. so i just want people to know. and i'm sure for a lot of us, especially myself, like this might take me months to recover. so i just wanted to make that clear because i think that it is important for people to start recognizing you may never know what someone else is going through, but for people who have been through trauma, it is really hard and if someone is watching this that is feeling really tired, that is a survivor and doesn't know why they are having certain issues that are new, just know that you are not alone and i experience the same thing and hopefully in time we can feel better. >> thank you, senator booker. i believe senator blackburn is available by webex. >> thank you, mr. chairman. because of limited bandwidth, i will just do this by voice, but i want to say a thank you to each of the women for being there today. and the power of their stories and their words. three quick questions. >> senator blackburn, can you hear us? >> yes, i can hear you. >> we missed your three questions. >> yes, three questions. number one, what are the reforms that you would like to see take place. number two, if you do not trust safe sport, then what we would like to know is who is a trustworthy -- or is there an organization or an individual that has your trust to be the go-to. and the third thing, did the fbi ever offer you a female agent who could walk with you through this process. >> thank you, senator. i'm going to let the panel respond to you and we have two more witnesses -- pardon me, two more members after you. thank you. >> i never had a female agent alongside me. and i'm sorry that i'm not answering more questions. after telling that story, i just -- i'm exhausted. >> understood. >> anyone else want to respond? >> there was a female agent in the room with me at the otc in 2016. but most of it was fueled by men just asking questions. but i honestly didn't know what i was walking into. they just told me i had a meeting with the fbi. didn't tell me what it was about. i was just pulled in a random -- it was kind of like a hotel room and they just started asking questions. i was never prompted.
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