Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles says she went to therapy on the morning that she helped Team USA win a gold medal on July 30, according to her comments in a news conference.
“So, at the beginning of the day, I started off with therapy this morning. So that was super exciting,” Biles said to reporters, according to video of the comments posted on YouTube by NBC6 South Florida. “And then I told her I was feeling calm and ready. And that’s kind of exactly what happened.”
Biles’ performance helped the USA women’s gymnastics team win the gold medal in team competition later in the day on July 30. Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera “won Team USA’s fourth-ever gold medal in the women’s team event at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” according to Olympics.com.
The team gold was Biles’ eighth Olympic medal, making her “the all-time American leader in the sport,” according to Olympics.com.
The 2024 success comes after Biles withdrew from the team competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, citing mental health issues, CNBC reported.
In a news conference at the time, posted by Bloomberg News on YouTube, Biles said she thought it would be a little bit better to take a “back seat. Work on my mindfulness.” She said she didn’t want to risk the team losing a medal “for kind of my screw-ups.” She said the Tokyo Olympics were “stressful” for many different reasons, including “not having an audience,” and because it was a “long week” and “long year.”
“We’re just a little bit too stressed out,” she said then, adding, “I say put mental health first because if you don’t then you’re not going to enjoy your sport and you’re not going to succeed as much as you want to. It’s okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are rather than just battle through it.”
Simone Biles Said She Felt ‘Relieved’ When Her Vault Was Successful, the Report Says
GettySimone Biles.
Biles said in the July 30 news conference that she felt relieved after she successfully performed a vault in the team competition in Paris.
“But after I finished vault, I was relieved,” she told reporters. “I was like, ‘Phew!’ because at least no flashbacks or anything. But I did feel a lot of relief. And as soon as I landed vault, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m definitely, we’re going to do this,'” she told reporters.
According to USA Gymnastics, the American team “posted a 171.296 to clinch the gold, nearly six points points over second-place Italy with a 165.494. Brazil was third with a 164.497.”
USA Gymnastics noted: “Olympic all-around champions Biles and Lee led the American charge, putting up the highest scores of the team on each apparatus. Biles had the top U.S. score on vault (14.900) and floor (14.666), while Lee was top scorer for the team on bars (14.566) and beam (14.600).”
Simone Biles Says That Seeing a Therapist Every Week ‘Is Kind of Religious for Me’
After making her third Olympic team, Simone Biles reflects on her return to gymnastics and the importance of being a mentor and a leader. #USAGTrials24
Biles has credited therapy with helping her succeed.
“Being in a good mental spot, seeing my therapist every Thursday is kind of religious for me. So that’s why I’m here today,” she told NBC News in June.
In 2021, Biles wrote on Instagram, “It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it. I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times. I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The Olympics is no joke! BUT I’m happy my family was able to be with me virtually🤍 they mean the world to me!”
“It’s okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself, because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are, rather than just battle through it,” Biles said, according to NBC News.
In her Netflix documentary “Simone Biles Rising,” Biles explained that she was thrown off by a case of the “twisties” in Tokyo.
“As soon as I did it, I was like, ‘You gotta be [expletive] me.’ Like, right now, really right now, we’re gonna do this?” she said.
Former Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez told Olympics.com that the “twisties” can occur “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.”
“The rhythm is off, and your brain will like stutter step for half a second and that’s enough to throw off the whole skill,” said Hernandez to Olympics.com. “And, so, it happens, and it takes a second to get over that.”
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Simone Biles Went to Therapy Just Hours Before Winning Gold Medal: Report