Washington (AFP)

American gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman violently denounced on Wednesday the inaction of sports authorities and the federal police to prevent sexual assaults by the former doctor of the United States women's team , Larry Nassar, on young athletes for two decades.

"We have been let down and we are owed an explanation," said Simone Biles, 24, in emotion, before a Senate committee tasked with looking into the "failures" of the investigation.

Larry Nassar, 58, is serving a life sentence after being sentenced to several heavy sentences in 2017 and 2018 for sexual assaults on more than 250 gymnasts, most of them minors, committed within the gymnastics federation, in the Michigan State University and a gymnastics club in Lansing where he worked.

An inspection report from the Department of Justice, an independent body, was very harsh on the local FBI office in Indianapolis, where the boss of the gymnastics federation first reported the charges against the osteopath in July 2015.

The investigation was closed in September and it took another report, eight months later, for a new investigation to be successful.

"I hold Larry Nassar accountable and I hold accountable an entire system that allowed and perpetrated these abuses, the American Gymnastics Federation and the US Olympic Committee," said Simone Biles, a huge multi-gold medalist champion.

“What is the value of a little girl?” She asked during a poignant testimony.

McKayla Maroney, she focused her anger on the local FBI office which had collected his testimony containing very specific details of the assaults.

"Not only did the FBI not do an investigation, but when (federal agents) finally made a report 17 months later, they made false statements about what I said," the accused said. 25-year-old former gymnast, who was assaulted when she was 13.

By falsifying her testimony, "these FBI agents committed a crime," she said, denouncing the absence of sanctions taken by the Department of Justice which she said "refused to prosecute" these police officers.

Simone Biles testifies before Congress in Washington on September 15, 2021 SAUL LOEB POOL / AFP

Aly Raisman, who revealed to have been assaulted from 2010, denounced Larry Nassar in 2015 to the Federation.

Still, "it took 14 months for the FBI to contact me despite my numerous requests to testify," the 27-year-old said.

Maggie Nichols, 24 and the first to report being sexually abused, said she was "haunted by the fact that even after reporting my assaults, so many women and girls suffered."

The Senate committee is also due to hear from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department Chief Inspector Michael Horowitz.

© 2021 AFP