Simone Biles is not done discussing her most recent Olympic experience.
It’s hard to blame her after all the negativity she received after withdrawing from the women’s all-around final due to her mental state and experiencing what gymnasts know as the “twisties.”
Biles spoke with Camonghne Felix of “The Cut” about her Olympic experience and her mental state during the international event. She discussed the vault attempt that forced her to withdraw from competition.
“It’s so dangerous,” Biles explains. “It’s basically life or death. It’s a miracle I landed on my feet. If that was any other person, they would have gone out on a stretcher. As soon as I landed that vault, I went and told my coach: ‘I cannot continue.’”
Her explanation of experiencing the “twisties” did not come immediately after the event, which more than likely contributed to many in the media questioning her resolve.
“I’ve never felt like this going into a competition before,” Biles said to reporters after the event. “I tried to go out here and have fun. And warmup in the back went a little bit better but then once I came out here…No. Mental’s not there. So, I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself.”
It made Biles appear somewhat selfish as she left her teammates mid-competition, but there was so much more going on in her life that we were unable to fully understand.
“If I still had my air awareness, and I just was having a bad day, I would have continued,” Biles says. “But it was more than that.”
Last week, Biles spoke in front of Congress, detailing the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar and blasting the FBI for their handling of the case.
“I sit before you today to raise my voice so that no little girl must endure what I, the athletes at this table, and the countless others who needlessly suffered under Nassar’s guise of medical treatment,” Biles said in her testimony. “Which we continue to endure today. We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at [the] FBI, USAG, or the USOPC [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee] did what was necessary in order to protect us. We have been failed and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable … In reviewing the OIG’s report, it truly feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us and went out of its way to help protect USAG and USOPC.”
Biles told “The Cut” how the Nassar saga impacted her, saying that she should not have attempted to compete in Tokyo.
“If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” Biles said. “I should have quit way before Tokyo when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years. 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.”
Biles’ Tokyo experience may be the last we see of her on the Olympic stage. She’ll be 27 when the 2024 Olympics in Paris come round, old for a gymnast. But Biles has not shut the door on competing, telling NBC’s “Today” show that she is yet to make a decision.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].