“I feel like sometimes I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. I know I make it seem like the pressure doesn’t affect me, but damn, sometimes it’s hard.” These were the explanations Simone Biles gave three years ago after dropping out of Tokyo 2020. It was “because of a mental issue,” she tried to summarize the U.S. gymnastics delegation. From that moment on, USA Gymnastics and the athlete herself began a work that was rewarded in August last year, when her small figure appeared at the US Classic in Chicago to the delight of the crowd that was present. With 10 weeks left, Paris 2024 arrives, her main illusion, hope and motivation, will she be the same Simone Biles as always? A very special countdown begins.
Between June 27 and 30, the U.S. gymnastics team of five women and five men for the Paris Olympics will be officially announced. No one doubts that the roster will be headed by Simone Biles and that the best-placed to join her, as they did in Tokyo, are Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee, the Laotian immigrant whom many still consider the true heir to the Biles crown. There is also veteran Gabby Douglas, present in London and Rio, who is looking for her third Olympic appearance after an 8-year hiatus. On the other hand, new faces may emerge among those seeking their Olympic debut: Shilese Jones, Leanne Wong, Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely and Joscelyn Roberson, all full of medals and illusions. Some are friends and all are teammates and rivals in the competition who, in some way, are also involved in the mental work that USA Gymnastics and Biles have put so much dedication into.
Simone Biles, Antwerp. (CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock)
All care is little knowing that many gymnasts dream of surpassing the queen, who with the maturity of 27 years and 37 medals between Olympic Games and world championships in her body, will return to the highest event of world sport in a renewed version. It remains to be seen whether it will be better, worse or the same. Simone Biles is aware of the internal ‘threats’ and also of the greatest of the external ones, Rebeca Andrade, in a duel that all gymnastics fans around the world are waiting for. But the difference is that today she knows they are not the only adversaries.
“I’m still in therapy to make sure everything is going well”
“I feel like I still doubt myself a little bit, but I’m still in therapy to make sure everything is going well,” she also feels capable of coming back. To stand again in the same great event that saw her in disbelief abandon 3 years ago in Tokyo, to now see her, with Paris as witness, protagonist of an iconic moment in Olympic gymnastics, not for results, but for winning the hardest of battles, the one she gave against her own fears and insecurities. A revenge that is not related to resentment or revenge, but built with the strength to convince one’s own psyche of a simple but resounding sentence and tell the whole world… Yes, I can!
Many fans know of the ordeal experienced by the gymnast and the unconditional affection of the stands, as with which she shared that moment of complicit emotion in the U.S. Classic in Chicago. That was the expected return to competition and both fans and star remembered that erratic jump, the brief walk, the talk with the coaches and the subsequent exclusion from Tokyo 2020+1. The fans of that August 2023 also knew the subsequent diagnosis that gave the ailment its name, ‘twisties’ (loss of orientation in the air).
Biles await the awarding ceremony, Antwerp 2023 (CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock)
IN ANTWERP HE LIVED UP TO EXPECTATIONS
The book ‘Religion of Sports’ claims that Biles admitted to her mother before retiring that “she felt like she could die every time she performed a jump with two and a half twists”. It was two years of therapy until she returned to high performance and, in addition, gave her another perspective on life: “I no longer feel that gymnastics is the end of everything, as it used to be“. This acclaimed comeback came with her eighth victory in Chicago. Then came the world championships in Antwerp, where, despite losing to Brazil’s Andrade on vault, she won gold on beam, balance beam, floor and team competitions.
There are 10 weeks left for Simone Biles to appear at the Bercy Arena in Paris and this countdown will be watched by Biles, USA Gymnastics, the International Gymnastics Federation, the Paris 2024 committee and the rest of the world. She is a key figure in the history of gymnastics, the Olympic Games and sport. A special human being because of his abilities, but with a head and mind like any other. Perhaps that is why there is more desire than ever that her struggle triumphs and not only hangs a medal, but can be an example of her hard-earned victory in the field of mental health, something necessary to make visible and normalize.
