This article originally appeared in the Summer 2024 Champion Issue of Showstopper Magazine.
The most decorated gymnast in world and Olympic history is Simone Biles. She reached this status at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, but the world knew her name long before. At only 27 years old, Simone has a 21-year-long gymnastics career that began on a field trip and turned into a competitive journey that would have the eyes of the world on her.
With a long list of firsts and five elements (two vault, one balance beam, and two floor) in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points named after her, Simone is undeniably a champion. However, more than athletics have secured that title for her. Simone has shown the world that the people you surround yourself with and how you allow yourself to work, rest, and heal are as essential as finding the perfect conditioning routine.
Making a Choice
Simone withdrew from the US Women’s National Team in 2021 during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Why? She was experiencing a phenomenon called the “twisties” during practice and competitions. Simone had experienced them before at different points in her career.
Her 2016 Olympic teammate Laurie Hernandez shared with the Olympic news outlet after her departure from competition in Tokyo that “the twisties can set in when doing high-level elements, typically on floor or vault, and it becomes difficult to compartmentalize the exact element a gymnast’s body is attempting.” This is disorienting enough to make competing impossible or even dangerous, and the mental toll it takes on an athlete can only worsen the twisties’ symptoms.
Support from Tokyo to Paris
When she made her decision, Simone’s teammates and coaches initially tried to reassure her, but she knew that even if she performed well, staying would come at the expense of the team’s success. She stayed to cheer on her team and reassure them that they could succeed without her. “That’s why we have teammates,” she said in a news conference, “because if somebody’s feeling down, you have to step up. And they did just that. So kudos to them.”
In her post-Tokyo journey, support would continue to be important to Simone. Following the Olympics, Simone and her team went on tour across the US, and the fans were a reminder that Simone’s value went beyond her Olympian status. “The tour helped me get out there and realize there’s more to life than gymnastics,” she told NBC Olympics podcaster Alex Cooper. “I honestly thought, since I didn’t compete at the Olympics in the way that I was supposed to, and that we didn’t win gold, I thought nobody was going to show up to my tour stops. And night after night, it kind of filled my cup because all of these girls and the fans came out.” Being surrounded by people who were cheering her on for success, her decision to take care of herself, and her future helped reinforce her love of gymnastics and belief in herself.
Beyond her team and fans, Simone’s coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi were instrumental in her return to gymnastics and her journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Returning to the gym and training was frightening, and on more than one occasion Simone confessed that she walked out on a practice. “The amount of times that I walked out because I would just get lost, or the amount of times I sat there, and I would just cry, because I’m like, ‘It’s happening. It’s happening.'” The Landis supported her and even told her not to set Olympic expectations for 2024. Their coaching became part of not only retraining her body but also her mindset.
Knowing When to Take a Break
When you are achieving all of your goals and getting the benefits, applause, and rewards from them, it can be hard to stop or step back. Success can feel fleeting or entirely based on momentum. If you don’t keep going, will you every be able to reach that level again?
This is exactly what Simone faced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021. Simone was the gymnast to watch, and it seemed certain that she would earn gold medals. After several mistakes and mishaps, Simone managed to qualify for balance beam and uneven bars and even qualified in first place in all-around and vault, but something was wrong.
The pressure of the Olympics was impacting Simone’s ability to focus and perform, and when it started to take a toll on riskier tricks, including twists, Simone decided to withdraw from the Olympics, staying only to cheer on her teammates.
At a news conference that followed the Olympic team gymnastics final, Simone shared that she knew that she could have persevered through the rest of the competition, but it would have affected her and her teammates’ ability to secure a medal—Team USA won silver. “I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness,” she said.
This is not the first time Simone has taken a break. After the 2016 Rio Olympics, she went on a brief hiatus in 2017 co-writing her autobiography and competing on Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars before returning to the gym for conditioning in the fall. Even her departure from the Tokyo Olympics was a brief break. A week after she withdrew from the team final, she returned to win bronze on the balance beam (without twists) and, that fall, embarked on a 34-show nationwide gymnastics tour with her teammates. Each of these moments allowed Simone the time she needed to continue to perform successfully and safely.
Olympics Ready
Simone told Alex that she doesn’t want to look back on Paris 2024 and think “Oh, I wish I would have tried,” so she’s returning to the Olympics this summer as part of the US National Team. Pairing her training and competition schedule with therapy sessions and a new outlook on success, Simone has a more well-rounded approach to her third Olympic outing.
Looking back on Tokyo, Simone felt like she had failed herself and the US. This meant regaining her confidence in herself and creating a more realistic understanding of who and what she represents. “I’ve learned so much about myself in such different Olympic experiences that now having another Olympic year in a cycle,” she said, “it’s traumatizing in a way to walk into, but I feel like, at this point, nothing can break me.”
In fact, Simone has been pumped up. The world is excited to see her representing Team USA in 2024. After landing more than one incredible move, including becoming the first woman to land the Yurchenko double pink at the World Gymnastics Championships in 2023, Simone also received a Laureas World Sports Awards nomination for the “World Comeback of the Year.” Her two-year hiatus ended with a world championship all-around gold.
Everyday Champion
Headed back to the Olympics, Simone has a lot going on, but if you look at her Instagram page, you’ll see joy in her posts. Whether she’s celebrating International Women’s Day with her closest friends, sharing awards nominations, or vacations with her husband, Simone’s IG is largely a celebration of herself. It seems like Simone has learned to surround herself with the things that make her feel best and remind her of all the ways she is a champion, even those that don’t include medals.
