“We’re not just athletes. We’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. I didn’t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It’s so big, it’s the Olympic Games. At the end of the day, we don’t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher.”
In the ensuing days, Biles withdrew from the uneven bars, vault and floor exercise competitions. She had won the gold medal in the vault and floor in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Biles remained in the field for the balance beam and adjusted her routine, ditching her usual full-twisting double back tuck in favor of a double back pike. She earned a bronze medal in the event, matching her finish from five years earlier in Rio de Janeiro.
“It means more than all the golds because I’ve been through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here; it was just… it was very emotional,” she said on NBC’s “Today” Show . “And I’m just proud of myself and all of these girls as well.”
“I didn’t really care about the outcome,” she later added. “I was so happy that I made the routine and then I got to compete one more time.”
REQUIRED READING: Everything you need to know about Simone Biles, US Olympic gold medalist and the GOAT
What are the twisties?
Biles received widespread support as she endured her mental health struggles, but was also the subject of criticism from pundits and talking heads outside the world of gymnastics, some of whom labeled her a quitter.
In reality, her exit from the Olympics was much more nuanced.
While “mental health” can be a wide-ranging, sometimes nebulous term, what affected Biles was something much more specific.
Biles was dealing with what gymnasts call “the twisties,” something she referenced repeatedly while discussing her withdrawal from the various Olympics events. While the term sounds playful and even fun, it’s an incredibly serious matter.
Though it’s not a technical medical diagnosis, the twisties refer to the psychological phenomenon a gymnast experiences when they encounter a disconnect between their body and mind while performing skills, like twists, in competition. It can cause a gymnast to lose their sense of space and air awareness while executing a routine, potentially causing them to do more or fewer twists or flips than intended. In some instances, dealing with the twisties can prevent a gymnast from landing safely on the mat, which could result in serious injury. In other sports, they are analogous to what is colloquial called “the yips.”
Gymnasts who had dealt with the twisties or were aware of the debilitating effect of them came out to praise Biles and fight against whatever backlash had been directed at her. Among those coming to Biles’ defense was Jacoby Miles, who had bailed early on a skill during competition, stopping earlier than she was supposed to, and landed on her neck, paralyzing her from the chest down.
“She was brave enough and strong enough, even though it was the Olympic stage, to say ‘No, for my own safety, physical and mental health, I’m going to step out and make this decision,’” Miles said to Sports Illustrated . “I thought (it) was just really, really smart on her part.”
Biles took it upon herself to try to educate others on the twisties. In a series of posts on Instagram, Biles explained that her “mind and body are simply not in sync” and showed herself trying to complete a 1.5 twist before landing on her back.
“I don’t think you realize how dangerous this is on hard/competitive surface,” she wrote in a caption .
Biles also wrote that while afflicted with the twisties that she “literally can not tell up from down. It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body. What’s even scarier is since I have no idea where I am in the air I also have NO idea how I’m going to land. Or what I’m going to land on.”
How many Olympic gold medals does Simone Biles have?
Biles has won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics, all of which came in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She won the all-around, vault and floor exercise individually and was part of the United States’ gold-medal-winning team in the team final.
Additionally, Biles has a silver medal from the 2020 team competition and a pair of bronze medals, both from the balance beam. Her seven total medals rank her in a tie for ninth all-time among female Olympic gymnasts and in a tie with Shannon Miller for the most by an American female gymnast.
Is Simone Biles going to the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Biles will be one of five female American gymnasts competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
She is just the fourth American woman to ever make three Olympic gymnastics teams. With one medal, she would break a tie with Miller as the most decorated American female gymnast ever and with two gold medals, she could break Anton Heida’s record for most gold medals by an American female gymnast. She could also become just the third woman to win gold in the all-around twice, joining Larisa Latynina and Vera Caslavska.
At 27 years old in a sport that has historically favored teenaged competitors, she could become the oldest all-around champion since 1952, the oldest American to win an Olympic women’s gymnastics medal since 1948 and the oldest American ever to win a gold medal in women’s gymnastics (the current record-holder, Aly Raisman, was 22 when she did so in 2016).
Biles enters the competition still near the top of her game. She was the gold medalist in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise at the 2023 World Championships. At the 2024 U.S. National Championships in late May and early June, she swept the available gold medals, winning in the all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
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