Simon Biles at the Tokyo Olympics
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Simone Biles has shared the emotional toll the Tokyo Olympics took on her.
While appearing on Wednesday’s podcast episode call her father When the athlete lost awareness of the position of her body while spinning in the air, she talked about her mental state during her vault performance, which she found twists..
“We knew my gymnastics was so good, I was already doing twists in training,” Biles recalled. But [at the moment]I’m trying to push that and I tell my teammates, ‘I’m fighting demons right now, but I’m going to do it for you.’
She said she felt like she was “losing” her body and mind to do the tricks and had tried some alternate routes while practicing, but still wasn’t sure how the Olympics would go.
“I don’t know how many curves I’m going to have,” she says, recalling the second time she second-guessed herself during her acting career. Biles said she “can’t curl anymore” because it’s like “your body and your mind don’t know where you are.”
Once she found out she had curves, Biles felt very sorry for herself. “If I could get on a plane [and] I flew home, I was going to do it,” she said. But as soon as I got off. [on the mat], ‘Oh America hates me. The world is going to hate me and now I only see what they say on Twitter.’
Host Alex Cooper said Bills’ responses “let the country down,” to which the gymnast replied, “I thought she was going to get banned from America.” Because that’s what they say, ‘If it’s not gold, don’t come back.’
Following the Tokyo Olympics, Biles took a two-year break to compete in the gymnastics championships before returning to the sport in 2023, where she won gold and became the most decorated gymnast in history. It is not yet confirmed whether Bills will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.