The 2020 Olympics weren’t what gymnast Simone Biles hoped. She arrived in Tokyo with huge expectations on her shoulders, having the chance to make history and break two records. However, she found herself unable to compete due to mental health issues. Now, the 24-year-old has said that, despite everything, she wouldn’t change what happened.
In an interview with New York magazine, Biles was candid about what she went through during the Olympics, where she withdrew from the finals after feeling the “twisties”, the sudden loss of spatial awareness, during her vault performance. She went for a 2.5 flip and only completed a 1.5, which was clearly a sign that something was off.
“Sometimes it’s like, yeah, I’m perfectly okay with it. Like, that’s how it works. That’s how it panned out,” she explained about her withdrawal to the publication. “And then other times I’ll just start bawling in the house.” Here, check out her full declarations.
Simone Biles: “I should’ve quit way before Tokyo”
Biles said she is still processing what happened at the Olympics. However, she is sure that the experience has taught her a lot. “Everybody asks, ‘If you could go back, would you?’ … I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason and I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself.”
Despite that, she is open about her issues that led her to quit right before everything she was preparing for. “If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” Biles said to the publication. “I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years,” she added.
She is referring to the sexual abuse she and more than 160 other gymnasts experienced from the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, who was convicted in 2018. “It was too much. But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6 years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.”
Alongside former teammates McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who also were abused by Nassar, Biles recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s handling of claims against him.
