Simone Biles Says Larry Nassar ‘Took a Part of Me That I Can’t Get Back’

Simone Biles appeared on NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today on Wednesday to discuss the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

The 20-year-old gold medalist said Wedneday that she’s “very happy” Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison, but that she’s still working through the pain caused by Nassar.

“It feels like he took a part of me that I can’t get back. So I am still working on that part, so it is very hard,” she told Kelly.

She went on to say that once she realized the severity of what happened is when the emotional pain really hit her.

“I think for elite athletes like some of us that have gone through this hard time, I think we are very good at compartmentalizing things so I think we just try to push it in the back of our heads that it didn’t happen to us. But once you realize, you know, it happened to you, it is very saddening,” Biles told Kelly.

She continued: “For the longest time my parents would ask, ‘Hey Simone,’ they would never push me to talk about it but my automatic response was, ‘no.’ I would be angry and I didn’t want to talk about it because I was like ‘no, it couldn’t happen to me. There is just no way.’ “

“And then you just come to realize that it has happened and I think that is when I broke down about it because nobody wants their daughter or just even as an individual, to have that happen to them. So, it feels like he took a part of me that I can’t get back. So I am still working on that part, so it is very hard.”

Biles wanted other victims of sexual assault to know that it is never the victim’s fault.

“It is not your fault because some of them, it is a called a grooming process and I think that is what he did. So the main part that he took away from me that I will never get back is trust,” she said. “So I think it is very hard for me to trust some other people and I find myself even walking down the street or being in places, I am just very scared. So I think that was the main thing but it will all come back within time.”

Earlier on Wednesday’s Today broadcast, Biles told co-anchor Hoda Kotb why she called Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who sentenced Nassar last week, her “hero.”

“She gave it to him straight and didn’t let him get any power over any of the other girls and letting the girls go and speak was very powerful,” Biles said.

The Olympian, who is currently training for the 2020 Games and promoting the lifetime movie about her added that she wished Aquilina “would have just given him a crazy number like 3,000 years or something” — but maintained that the judge was a “boss” for standing up for victims of abuse.

Biles is one of more than 140 women and girls who have accused Nassar of sexual abuse. Nassar was sentenced to between 40 to 175 years in prison last week by Aquilina, who made no effort to hide her contempt for the disgraced doctor once his sentencing hearing rolled around.

“I just signed your death warrant,” Aquilina told him.

“As much as it was my honor and privilege to hear the sister survivors, it is my honor and privilege to sentence you,” she said before issuing her sentencing of 40 to 175 years. “Because, sir, you do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again.”