Aly Raisman said she did not trust USA Gymnastics to protect the team’s mental health

• Aly Raisman doesn't trust USA Gymnastics to protect the current team's physical, mental health.
• In an interview with The New Yorker last week, Raisman said the organization is "rotten from the inside out."
• On Tuesday, Simone Biles pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics women's gymnastics team final, citing her mental health.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Former USA Gymnastics team captain Aly Raisman said last week she has little faith in USA Gymnastics to support its team's mental health.

Despite the organization's new leadership and the sport's ongoing reckoning with abuse and corruption, she told the New Yorker in an interview that she believes USA Gymnastics is "rotten from the inside out."

Her comments foreshadowed Simone Biles' exit from the Tokyo Olympics women's gymnastics team final today, citing her mental health.

Biles, who's competing under the pressure of her reputation as the greatest athlete in the world, said her exit was due to the emotional, not physical, toll of the games.

Raisman has been outspoken against USA Gymnastics for years

Raisman, a six-time Olympic medalist, led both the 2012 and 2016 USA Women's Gymnastics teams to victory before retiring in 2020. In 2018, she testified against Larry Nassar, the team's former physician who's now serving life in prison for molesting hundreds of young gymnasts under his care.

The case broke open USA Gymnastics' failings to support its athletes, leading to leadership and other external changes that haven't changed the organization's toxic culture, Raisman told the New Yorker's Eren Orby.

"When I think about USA Gymnastics, I think it's just, like, rotten from the inside out," she said. "It's not a good organization."

When asked if she has any confidence in "the ability of USA Gymnastics to protect the current team's mental and physical health" going into the Tokyo Olympics, Raisman said: "No, none."

Biles said her emotional state varies moment by moment

Biles, who was also abused by Nassar, shocked her teammates and fans when announcing her withdrawal from the team final earlier today.

She's the most accomplished gymnast in the sport's history, and has been the one to watch in Tokyo.

In speaking to NBC's Hoda Kotb later, Biles said she felt good physically but that her emotional state "kind of varies on the time and moment. Coming to the Olympics and being head star isn't an easy feat, so we're just trying to take it one day at a time and we'll see."

At a press conference, the 24-year-old also said she'd endured a "really stressful" day and was shaking, presumably from anxiety. She said she had "never felt like this before," Insider's Meredith Cash reported.

Her stressful day followed "a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year," she said, according to ESPN's Michele Steele. "I think we're a little too stressed out - we should be out here having fun and that's just not the case."

"Once I came out here, I was like, no the mental is not there," she added. "I had to let the girls do it."

Raisman told Today she's "completely devastated" about Biles' withdrawal and hopes she's OK.

"I also am just thinking about the mental impact that this has to have on Simone," she said. "It's just so much pressure, and I've been watching how much pressure has been on her in the months leading up to the Games, and it's just devastating. I feel horrible."

Raisman added that Biles faces "more pressure than any other gymnast I've ever seen in my lifetime."