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Few athletes in American Olympic history have earned as much accomplishment and respect as Simone Biles.
The gymnast is a six-time World Gymnastics Championship all-around champion, nine-time U.S. Gymnastics Champion, and seven Summer Olympic medalists. In 2022, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.
By virtually any standard, she is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, and her fame and renown transcends the sport to become a symbol of national pride.
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For an athlete whose career has been defined by winning and dominance, the 2020 Summer Olympics marked a departure from that boastful trend.
Biles, who was the favorite to win several events going into the Tokyo Olympics, mostly withdrew from competition but still won two medals — one individual and one team — and her decision sparked a wide-ranging and sometimes heated public debate about mental health and how it affects seemingly unfazed elite athletes.
As Biles prepares to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, which will be the third Olympic Games of her illustrious career, she spoke to us here about her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, why she decided to retire from competition, and what we can expect from the 2024 Olympics.
Why did Simone Biles withdraw from the 2020 Olympics?
After a dominating performance at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that saw her win four gold medals, including the individual all-around, Biles entered the 2020 Tokyo Olympics not only as the favorite to repeat those feats, but also as one of the most recognizable faces and biggest stars in the entire Olympics, at least from an American perspective. Questions arose as to whether she could surpass her performance from five years ago and win a record five gold medals in a single Olympics.
In the end, she ended up making headlines, but for totally unexpected reasons.
Biles’ troubles began in the team competition, when on the vault in the Amanar event, she stumbled in the air, twisting only 1.5 revolutions instead of the usual 2.5, and nearly collapsed to the mat upon landing.
Those in the room immediately knew something was wrong. NBC commentator and Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin noted that “she almost looked lost in the air” during the execution of the move. Biles had experienced similar problems while warming up for the team final.
After the incident, Biles left the competition and ultimately withdrew from the team final. Even without her, the United States won the silver medal and narrowly lost the gold medal to the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
Shortly after, USA Gymnastics announced that Biles had withdrawn due to “health issues” and would “receive daily evaluations to receive medical clearance for future competition.” After the competition, Biles said she was not physically injured, but was prioritizing her mental health and trying not to let her weakened state jeopardize the team’s chances of winning a medal.
“After that performance, I just didn’t want to continue any more,” Biles said at the time. “I have to focus on my mental health. I think mental health is more important now in sports. We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out there and do what the world wants. I don’t really trust myself anymore. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. There were some days when everyone was tweeting and I felt the weight of the world.
“We’re not just athletes. At the end of the day, we’re human beings and sometimes you have to take a step back. I didn’t want to go out there and do something stupid and get hurt. I think it really helped that a lot of athletes spoke out. The Olympics are such a big thing. At the end of the day, we don’t want to be carried out on a stretcher.”
Days later, Biles withdrew from the uneven bars, vault and floor exercise, which she won gold medals in at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Biles stayed on the balance beam and tweaked her routine, swapping her usual full-twisting double back tuck for a double back pike, winning the bronze medal in the event, repeating her performance from five years ago in Rio.
“I’ve been through so much these last five years and being here, so this means more than all the gold medals. It was just so… so emotional,” she told NBC’s “Today” show. “And I’m just so proud of myself and all the athletes here.”
“I wasn’t really worried about the result,” she later added, “I was just happy that my performance went well and that I was competing again.”
Must read:Everything you need to know about US Olympic Gold Medalist and GOAT Simone Biles
What is Twisty?
Although Biles has received widespread support for her mental health issues, she has also been the target of criticism from pundits and commentators outside the gymnastics community, some of whom have called her “cowardly.”
In reality, her withdrawal from the Olympics was more subtle.
“Mental health” is a broad, sometimes vague term, but what affected Biles was something much more specific.
Biles suffered from what gymnasts call “twisties,” a condition she mentioned multiple times when discussing her reasons for withdrawing from various Olympic events. While the term sounds playful and fun, it’s a very serious issue.
Twisties are not a medical diagnosis, but rather refer to a psychological phenomenon that gymnasts experience when they encounter a disconnect between their body and mind while performing tricks such as twists during competition. Twisties can cause gymnasts to lose their sense of space and air during their performance, causing them to twist or flip more or less than intended. In some cases, dealing with twisties can prevent a gymnast from landing safely on the mat, which can lead to serious injury. In other sports, this is similar to what is colloquially known as “the yips.”
Gymnasts who have done twisties or are aware of their debilitating effects have come forward to praise Biles and fight any backlash directed at her, including Jacoby Miles, who stopped mid-competition, stopped early and landed on his neck during a competition, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
“Even though it was the Olympic stage, she was brave and strong enough to say, ‘No, for my own safety, my physical and my mental health, I’m going to step up and make this decision,'” Miles told Sports Illustrated. “I thought she made a really, really smart choice.”
Biles has taken it upon herself to teach others about twisties, explaining in a series of Instagram posts that her “mind and body are totally out of sync” and showing herself attempting one-and-a-half twists before landing on her back.
“I don’t think y’all realize how dangerous this is on a hard/playing surface,” she wrote in the caption.
Biles also wrote that while stuck in the twisties, “I literally don’t know which is up or down. It’s the craziest feeling ever. I have no control over my body whatsoever. What’s even more terrifying is that because I don’t know where I am in the air, I 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 coming in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She won the individual all-around, vault and floor exercise and was part of the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the team final.
Additionally, Biles won a silver medal in the team event and two bronze medals on the balance beam in 2020. Her seven total medals are tied for ninth place all-time among female Olympic gymnasts and are tied with Shannon Miller for the most medals by an American female gymnast.
Will Simone Biles compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Biles will be one of five U.S. female gymnasts competing in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
She is the fourth American woman to compete on the Olympic gymnastics team three times. With one medal, she would tie Miller as the most decorated American female gymnast of all time. With two gold medals, she would break Anton Heida’s record for most gold medals won by an American female gymnast. She could also become just the third woman to win two gold medals in the individual all-around, joining Larisa Latynina and Vera Caslavska.
At 27, she could become the oldest all-around winner since 1952, the oldest American to win an Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics since 1948, and the oldest American to win a gold medal in women’s gymnastics in a sport that has historically favored teenagers. (The current record-holder, Aly Raisman, won gold at age 22 in 2016.)
Biles enters the Games still in top form, having won gold medals in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise at the 2023 World Championships, and sweeping all available gold medals at the 2024 U.S. Championships in late May and early June, winning the all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
