Simone Biles believes she never should have been competing at the Tokyo Games.
“If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” she said in a New York Magazine interview. “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 six 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 revealed in 2018 that she was one of the gymnasts who were abused by USA Gymnastics team doctor Nassar, who is serving what amounts to a life sentence for abusing dozens of athletes over a number of years.
While testifying at a U.S. senate committee hearing investigating the FBI’s handling of the Nassar case, Biles admitted that dealing with being a victim of sexual abuse had added to the pressures she felt heading into the Tokyo Games.
The most decorated gymnast of all time was expected to add as many as five gold medals to the four she won at Rio 2016 but ended up withdrawing from five of her six finals, at first citing her mental health. Biles then revealed she was suffering from the “twisties”, where she no longer had the proper awareness while in the air to safely perform her routines.
In the interview with New York Magazine, the 24-year-old explained just how dangerous the situation was and why she pulled out after her vault performance at the women’s team final in Tokyo.
“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.’ "
She was replaced by MyKayla Skinner, and Team USA would go on to win silver in the team finals. Later, Biles returned to compete in the individual balance beam where she won bronze. She owns a combined 32 Olympic and World Championship medals and has won more medals at international competitions than any other gymnast.
“Everybody asks, ‘If you could go back, would you?’ " Biles said in the interview. “No. 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.”
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
