I woke up the other day and my aunt unexpectedly passed. “It’s like, you guys have no idea what we’re going through. I got a lot of great comments, a lot of outpouring support and love, but I also got a lot of bad stuff. They just judge from our social media, so whenever they say those hurtful things, it’s like you guys have no idea. They have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes. “At the end of the day, we’re not just entertainment, we’re humans. “I feel like athletes kind of suppress their emotions and how they’re feeling,” Biles said. ![]() At least one former top USA Gymnastics official gloated about her demise on social media. ![]() She was vilified as a quitter, selfish and unpatriotic. With her withdrawal from the team event, Biles became a high profile-target in the latest American culture war. The decision (to pull out) she made was the wisest thing to do and it had nothing to do with others.” Said Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who succeeded Biles as Olympic vault champion, “People need to understand that athletes are no robots, but humans. So, the weight on her shoulders is massive.” To have the weight of what 300 whatever million (people in the USA). “I mean it was the Simone Biles Olympics, right. “I live in the United States and anything that came on the TV, NBC or commercials about the Olympics was Simone Biles,” golfer Rory McIlroy said. With Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and American swimmer Michael Phelps retiring after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Biles became the face of the Olympic Games. “I think that’s really empowering and that’s something that youths should feel like they can do too, so I think what she did will really impact the future generation.” “I think just recognizing that it’s so hard and the mental aspect is such a big thing and having the confidence to draw the line and say, ‘You know, I need to step back here and take some time for myself to center myself,’” U.S. In doing so, Biles forced a national conversation on mental health. “It can be tough as an athlete and it’s good that the issues are being raised now.” “It’s great that she is speaking out about these issues,” said Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, the world-record holder in the pole vault. Instead, Biles pushed back just as she has against the sexual abuse of young athletes, another issue in which she has been at the forefront.īiles’ withdrawal came with the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal still looming over the sport and the Olympic movement.īiles is a Nassar survivor and has been the highest-profile and one of the most vocal critics of USA Gymnastics and the necessity to prioritize athlete safety over medals and corporate sponsorships and to fix the culture of abuse within the sport that enabled Nassar, the former Olympic and national team doctor, to sexually abuse more than 500 women under the guise of medical treatment. “I know some of us are going through the same things and we’ve always told to push through it.” “To bring the topic of mental health, I think should be talked about a lot more, especially with athletes,” Biles said Tuesday night. She claimed her sixth and seventh Olympic medals here, but above all Biles emerged in Tokyo as the ultimate champion in the MeToo era the athlete who has stood atop the Olympic medal podium four times, the top step at the World Championships, using her global platform to raise awareness for mental health issues. In Tokyo, she again went to a place few dare to go. ![]() But even restricted to the stands, Biles continued to overshadow her sport and these Games.īiles’ eight-year reign as the world’s premier gymnast has been defined by skills that defied the imagination. “Just to have another opportunity to compete at the Olympics meant the world to me.”īiles’ spatial awareness issues, referred to by gymnasts as “the twisties,” aggravated by stress that led her to pull out of the team competition, also kept her out of the individual all-around, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise events. “I didn’t expect to medal today, I just wanted to go out and do it for me, and that’s what I did. “It’s been a very long week, a very long five years,” Biles said.
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