Who is Simone Biles and what was her gymnastics career like?

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Her thrilling return to the Olympics was quickly sealed with a gold medal for the American gymnasts, but she triumphed even before she landed her famous double somersault with a half-twist. Simone Biles won as soon as she landed in Paris.

I listen to journalists commenting live on the gymnastics competitions at the Olympic Games in Paris. I read what the world and Polish media write before and after the performances of the American gymnastics team. A common theory is that Simone Biles’ presence in Paris is an expected attempt at redemption. The athlete herself does not shy away from this rhetoric. – We have a chance to rehabilitate ourselves – she commented in an interview with the official press service of the Olympics.com games. – There is a huge pressure on us to prove that we are better athletes today. We have matured, we are wiser and more persistent. – she confessed. The commentators’ boxes also echo with admiration for the gymnast’s charisma, a rare combination of leadership skills and a talent for building a close-knit team in which all are equal, even if one of them enjoys the status of a superstar. This is all true. However, too little is said about the fact that Biles’ merits can be measured in medals won, but also in something completely incalculable, and perhaps more important – a change of perspective. Those ignorant people who a few years ago belittled the gymnast’s depression, and called a mental crisis an excuse, are now – I hope – very stupid. Simone Biles’ return to the Olympic Games is not only a victory of a strong body that is getting back into shape. It is above all a triumph of a spirit that fortunately could not be broken.

When the Body Rebels: Simone Biles’s Crisis at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics

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– I used to sit here and cry like a baby. I asked God why this was happening to me. does – she confesses in the Netflix documentary series “Simone Biles: The Return,” showing the contents of the closet where she keeps mementos from the ill-fated Tokyo Olympics. A jersey, a race number, a plane ticket to Japan. All stuffed in a closet that she hardly looks into, to avoid unnecessarily reopening the wound. Sometimes she turns the story of the crisis into a self-deprecating joke. – Sure, I’d rather break down another time. But it got the world talking about certain issues, and a lot of people were finally noticed and got the help they needed. Thank God for that jump – she says with a nervous smile, reminding us that she fell apart in front of the eyes of millions of people who had just watched the greatest gymnast in history perform at the most important event in the sports calendar.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were a difficult event. The tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the hope that it would be able to take place with the traditional Olympic flair once the global crisis had abated. Ultimately, most of the competition took place in front of empty stands, although the event was of course broadcast in the media, so Biles’ suspiciously unsuccessful jump was immediately, widely and brutally commented on. The gymnast experienced what is known in sports nomenclature as “twisties”. This is a dangerous situation when the mind and body diverge, there is a loss of control. Simone Biles took off for a jump, but lost in mid-flight, instead of two and a half revolutions she did one and a half. In such an extremely acrobatic discipline, the conflict between the mind and body is a situation that threatens not medals, but life. Biles made the most sensible decision in Tokyo and withdrew from the tournament to take care of her mental health. Traditional and social media were filled with outrage that this was not done, that it was a betrayal, that she had turned her back on the rest of the team. That instead of showing an unwavering will to fight, she was giving up, which was unworthy of a multiple Olympic medalist and world champion, because after all, sports are about transcending yourself and pushing forward even when your body resists. However, when her body rebelled, Simone Biles faced probably the most difficult battle of her life to date. One in which the stakes were her inner peace.

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Medal for Change: Simone Biles on the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Netflix Documentary

– In 2016 I won five medals. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. Rio was the most important moment of my life. Afterwards I thought: Damn! I’ve achieved everything at 19. What am I going to do with the rest of my life? – he says in the Netflix documentary. – I went back home. I didn’t know what depression was. I only knew that I had to rest. But even resting, I wasn’t rested. How can you be sad after winning the games? – Biles wonders. Watching the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, we witnessed the spectacular birth of probably the greatest athlete of our time. Agile, fast, strong Biles not only flawlessly performed the evolutions introduced to the permanent repertoire of artistic gymnastics by past champions with superhuman precision. She supplemented them with her own figures and variations, much more difficult – which is why several of them were named after her. The girls from the American gymnastics team still joke that second place is a real victory, because Biles is beyond competition, there is no way to beat her. No other American gymnast has won so many Olympic medals, and in addition to those won in Rio, there are more won in Paris – at the time of writing this text, she already has gold in the team all-around and gold in the individual all-around, and it probably won’t be the end, because the Games are still ongoing, and she still has a few competitions ahead of her.

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The Cost of Victory: Simone Biles Was Sexually Harassed

But these are victories paid for with great pain, not only physical. – I bottled everything up inside me. I wanted to deal with my problems after my career ended. But suddenly something snapped. It was a reaction to trauma. To everything that happened. – she confessed in a documentary series. In 2018, Simone Biles published a post on Twitter (currently Portal X) ending with the hashtag #metoo. She was one of the athletes who spoke out about the sexual abuse by the doctor of the American gymnastics team, Larry Nassar. Over the years, the medic allegedly molested even several hundred teenage girls passing through training centers. He convinced young victims that this is what medical procedures looked like, intimidated them. He preyed on the sensitive psyche of girls undergoing rigorous training, because at the same time, the specific atmosphere at the ranch of Marta and Bela Karolyi, long-time coaches of the team, began to be looked at critically. Military regime, restrictive diet, jokes about weight or appearance – this was the everyday life of training teenagers. Simone Biles, first speaking about the abuse and then withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics due to a mental health crisis, shed light on the pathologies of the system that completely distorts the noble ideas of self-improvement that are inherent in sports. She changed gymnastics literally – introducing new evolutions. She changed gymnastics profoundly – ​​starting the whole process of revising previous beliefs and tools, thanks to which the next generations of young athletes will not have to pay for training with nervous breakdowns and bear the trauma of violence. For that, she also deserves a medal.

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Simone Biles’ Future: Home, Family, and a Wardrobe of Medals

Today, Simone Biles is happy to talk about her new love and the home she is building with her husband, professional football player Jonathan Owens. When she is not busy training, she is developing a mentoring program for children from foster care. She was one such child herself when her mother, addicted to alcohol and drugs, was stripped of custody. She was adopted by her biological grandparents, whom she calls “Mom” and “Dad.” In March, she turned 27. For a gymnast, this is almost retirement age, so the Olympic Games in Paris may be her last tournament of this scale. It is no wonder that when she performs, celebrities gather in the stands: Serena Williams, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. Biles is a must-see. There will be no second one like her for a long time.

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