Heavy Simone Biles reflected on the Tokyo Olympics in her Netflix series.
A former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant has opened up about the challenges she has navigated ahead of an important event. Season 24 DWTS alum Simone Biles is headed back to the Olympics for the third time, and the struggles she’s experienced the past few years are very much on her mind ahead of the games.
The new Netflix series “Simone Biles Rising” begins with a look back at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which were delayed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the documentary, the Olympian noted that what happened in Tokyo was “a trauma response of everything that has happened, just being a survivor.”
Simone Biles Lacked Confidence in Herself After Tokyo
Biles faced high expectations heading into the Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately, her experience did not play out as anyone anticipated.
As USA Today shared, Biles withdrew from the games before completing her events because she experienced the “twisties.” The outlet explained that the “twisties” refer to gymnasts feeling disoriented or lost while performing. Due to the twisties and concerns over her mental health, Biles dropped out in Tokyo.
Biles “had to fight demons” to overcome what happened, she shared in the new Netflix documentary.
“After Tokyo, I literally had not one ounce of belief in myself,” Biles admitted. She continued, “You just don’t know if you can do it again.”
At the same time, the “Dancing with the Stars” alum noted, “I was like, ‘Is this really how my career ends? That’s tragic.”
Biles stepped away from gymnastics for a while after Tokyo.
She returned to competitions in 2023 and made the Olympic team for the third time. “This time, coming back, it’s truly for myself,” she explained during the documentary.
The gymnast wants to make sure she is “ending [her gymnastics career] on my own terms.”
In the Netflix series, Biles shared, “I never want to look back in 10 years and say, ‘Oh, what if I could’ve done another Olympic cycle or at least tried?” She added, “I didn’t want to be afraid of the sport anymore.”
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Much of the Netflix series features Biles sharing insight into withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. She also touches on the impact of being one of many gymnasts abused by former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar.
Biles and several fellow gymnasts testified about the Nassar situation in September 2021 in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She noted during her testimony, “The impacts of this man’s abuse are not ever over or forgotten.”
The Olympian admits in her Netflix series she thought she could heal without help after Nassar’s abuse. “I didn’t get the proper care before because I just thought I was okay. But your mind and your body (are) the first one to say, ‘Actually, no.'”
“Everything that has happened, I’ve just like, ‘I’ll push it down, shove it down, wait until my career’s done, go fix it,” Biles explains in the Netflix show.
“Then something like this happens — and unfortunately, to me, it happened at the Olympics,” she added.
Many people were critical of the “Dancing with the Stars” alum after she withdrew in Tokyo. She was very hard on herself, too. In “Rising,” she explains, “Everywhere I went I felt like they could see ‘loser’ or ‘quitter’ across my head.”
“I used to just sit here and just cry and cry and cry,” Biles recalls of how she was after Tokyo.
Now, however, Biles sees a positive in what she went through in Tokyo. “It opened up the conversation to a lot of the world, and a lot of people got the chance to be heard and be seen and to get the proper help. Thank God for that vault.”