Simone Biles ‘Never Truly Believed’ She Was More Than Her Accomplishments Until Now
After withdrawing from two Olympic events, Simone Biles received an outpouring of support from her fans, Olympic teammates, and fellow elite athletes. And all those well wishes finally made her realize she’s more than her “accomplishments and gymnastics,” Biles wrote in a heartfelt Instagram post.
“The outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before,” Biles said in the caption.
The 24-year-old’s poignant post comes just a few days after she pulled out of the women’s team competition (and, later, the individual all-around competition) following a misstep on the vault. Biles, who is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, attributed the mistake to “the twisties,” a phenomenon well known among gymnasts, NPR reports. The twisties is a terrifying loss of spatial awareness and muscle memory that can happen while athletes are in the air, and it’s sometimes triggered by stress. It can lead competitors to twist more times than they intended or to stop twisting early, the BBC explains, with either scenario putting them at high risk for severe, even life-threatening injuries.
Biles’ situation reveals just how important mental health is for elite competitors—and the fact that, in a sport as dangerous as gymnastics, protecting mental health is also crucial to staying physically safe. Ahead of the team competition, Biles wrote on Instagram that she feels “the weight of the world” on her shoulders at times, and told reporters afterward that she just wasn’t in the right mental space to compete.
“It’s like fighting all those demons and coming out here. I have to put my pride aside. I have to do it for the team,” she said, according to Reuters. “And then at the end of the day, it’s like, ‘You know what, I have to do what is right for me and focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and my well-being.’”
Biles’ prioritization of her mental wellbeing echoes that of tennis star Naomi Osaka, who said she would skip out on doing media interviews at the French Open to protect her mental health. Osaka later argued in an essay for Time that athletes should be able to take mental health days to care for themselves when needed.
It remains to be seen whether or not Biles will compete in any of the individual events she’s scheduled for during the Tokyo Olympics. But she’s been cheering on her teammates as they continue to win medal after medal and taking the time she needs to reflect and recover, which is already more than enough.
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