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There are few athletes in American Olympic history more accomplished and revered than Simone Biles.
The gymnast is a six-time all-around champion at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, a nine-time champion at the USA Gymnastics National Championships and a recipient of seven medals at the Summer Olympics. In 2022, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
By virtually any measurement, she’s considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all-time, someone whose profile and fame has transcended her own sport and turned her into a symbol of national pride.
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For someone whose career has been defined by winning and outright dominance, the 2020 Summer Olympics represented a break from that vaunted trend.
A heavy favorite in several events entering the Tokyo Games, Biles withdrew from much of the competition, though she still managed to secure two medals (one individual, one team). Her decision ignited a wide-ranging, occasionally intense public conversation around mental health and how it affects elite, seemingly unflappable athletes.
As Biles prepares for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the third Olympics of her decorated career, here’s a look back at her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, why she withdrew from the competition and what she can expect from the 2024 games:
Why did Simone Biles withdraw from the 2020 Olympics?
After her dominant performance at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in which she won four gold medals, including in the all-around, Biles entered the 2020 Tokyo Olympics not only as a favorite to replicate those feats, but as one of the most famous faces and biggest stars of the entire Olympics, at least from an American perspective. Questions loomed about whether she could even surpass what she had done five years earlier and win a record five gold medals in at a single Olympics.
Ultimately, she found herself in the headlines, but for entirely unexpected reasons.
Biles’ difficulties began in the team competition. During an Amanar vault, Biles balked while in mid-air, doing only 1.5 twists instead of the customary 2.5 and nearly falling to the mat on her landing.
Those at the event immediately noticed something didn’t appear to be right, with NBC analyst Nastia Liukin, herself a former Olympic all-around champion, noting that “it looked like she got almost lost in the air” while executing the move. Biles had experienced a similar problem during warmups for the team final.
After the snafu, Biles left the competition floor and eventually withdrew from the team finals. Even without Biles, the United States won a silver medal, getting edged out by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) for the gold.
In the immediate aftermath, USA Gymnastics said Biles pulled out due to a “medical issue” and would be “assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.” Following the event, Biles said she was not physically injured, but was prioritizing her mental health and trying to ensure that a diminished version of herself didn’t jeopardize her team’s chance at medaling.
“After the performance I did, I just didn’t want to go on,” Biles said at the time. “I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now. We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do. I don’t trust myself as much anymore. Maybe it’s getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world.
“We’re not just athletes. We’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. I didn’t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It’s so big, it’s the Olympic Games. At the end of the day, we don’t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher.”
In the ensuing days, Biles withdrew from the uneven bars, vault and floor exercise competitions. She had won the gold medal in the vault and floor in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Biles remained in the field for the balance beam and adjusted her routine, ditching her usual full-twisting double back tuck in favor of a double back pike. She earned a bronze medal in the event, matching her finish from five years earlier in Rio de Janeiro.
“It means more than all the golds because I’ve been through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here; it was just… it was very emotional,” she said on NBC’s “Today” Show. “And I’m just proud of myself and all of these girls as well.”
“I didn’t really care about the outcome,” she later added. “I was so happy that I made the routine and then I got to compete one more time.”
REQUIRED READING: Everything you need to know about Simone Biles, US Olympic gold medalist and the GOAT
What are the twisties?
Biles received widespread support as she endured her mental health struggles, but was also the subject of criticism from pundits and talking heads outside the world of gymnastics, some of whom labeled her a quitter.
In reality, her exit from the Olympics was much more nuanced.
While “mental health” can be a wide-ranging, sometimes nebulous term, what affected Biles was something much more specific.
Biles was dealing with what gymnasts call “the twisties,” something she referenced repeatedly while discussing her withdrawal from the various Olympics events. While the term sounds playful and even fun, it’s an incredibly serious matter.
Though it’s not a technical medical diagnosis, the twisties refer to the psychological phenomenon a gymnast experiences when they encounter a disconnect between their body and mind while performing skills, like twists, in competition. It can cause a gymnast to lose their sense of space and air awareness while executing a routine, potentially causing them to do more or fewer twists or flips than intended. In some instances, dealing with the twisties can prevent a gymnast from landing safely on the mat, which could result in serious injury. In other sports, they are analogous to what is colloquial called “the yips.”
Gymnasts who had dealt with the twisties or were aware of the debilitating effect of them came out to praise Biles and fight against whatever backlash had been directed at her. Among those coming to Biles’ defense was Jacoby Miles, who had bailed early on a skill during competition, stopping earlier than she was supposed to, and landed on her neck, paralyzing her from the chest down.
“She was brave enough and strong enough, even though it was the Olympic stage, to say ‘No, for my own safety, physical and mental health, I’m going to step out and make this decision,’” Miles said to Sports Illustrated. “I thought (it) was just really, really smart on her part.”
Biles took it upon herself to try to educate others on the twisties. In a series of posts on Instagram, Biles explained that her “mind and body are simply not in sync” and showed herself trying to complete a 1.5 twist before landing on her back.
“I don’t think you realize how dangerous this is on hard/competitive surface,” she wrote in a caption.
Biles also wrote that while afflicted with the twisties that she “literally can not tell up from down. It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body. What’s even scarier is since I have no idea where I am in the air I also 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 of which came in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She won the all-around, vault and floor exercise individually and was part of the United States’ gold-medal-winning team in the team final.
Additionally, Biles has a silver medal from the 2020 team competition and a pair of bronze medals, both from the balance beam. Her seven total medals rank her in a tie for ninth all-time among female Olympic gymnasts and in a tie with Shannon Miller for the most by an American female gymnast.
Is Simone Biles going to the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Biles will be one of five female American gymnasts competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
She is just the fourth American woman to ever make three Olympic gymnastics teams. With one medal, she would break a tie with Miller as the most decorated American female gymnast ever and with two gold medals, she could break Anton Heida’s record for most gold medals by an American female gymnast. She could also become just the third woman to win gold in the all-around twice, joining Larisa Latynina and Vera Caslavska.
At 27 years old in a sport that has historically favored teenaged competitors, she could become the oldest all-around champion since 1952, the oldest American to win an Olympic women’s gymnastics medal since 1948 and the oldest American ever to win a gold medal in women’s gymnastics (the current record-holder, Aly Raisman, was 22 when she did so in 2016).
Biles enters the competition still near the top of her game. She was the gold medalist in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise at the 2023 World Championships. At the 2024 U.S. National Championships in late May and early June, she swept the available gold medals, winning in the all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.