As a fervent admirer of sports and resilience, I have been utterly captivated by the indomitable spirit of Simone Biles at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Her tale is more than just a testament to her athletic prowess; it’s a beacon of strength, courage, and an unwavering commitment to mental health awareness.
Prior to the Paris 2024 Games, Simone Biles was unrivaled as the most decorated gymnast ever – both male and female – with an impressive collection of 37 medals from world championships and Olympics. After taking a two-year hiatus to prioritize her mental wellness following her withdrawal from all but the balance beam event at the postponed Tokyo Olympics, Biles has been unstoppable. She clinched her sixth all-around title at the world championships in October 2023, mere months after resuming competition. Moreover, she helped the US women’s team secure an unprecedented seventh consecutive victory in the team event. There was nothing left for Biles to prove, not even to herself.
She described their participation in the Olympic trials as a “renewal journey” for her and her fellow athletes, asserting they still have much to offer and much to demonstrate. Nicknamed the “Golden Girls” of the Olympic Games, with an average age of 22.467, they are the oldest U.S. women’s team since 1952 and the oldest Olympic team overall. Interestingly, they have the youngest member in the entire U.S. Olympic contingent – Hezly Rivera, who celebrated her 16th birthday just last month. Biles, being 27 years old, thought she would be retired by this time; however, her teammates and the world are pleased that she is not.
1. Gymnastics, one of the oldest sports in the contemporary Olympic Games, made its debut in the first modern Games held in 1896. Women’s gymnastics was added in 1928. This sport showcases an exceptional blend of power, agility, and artistic flair, as athletes must excel at intricate routines that demand both physical and mental control and finesse across multiple events. The sport has consistently evolved, from the perfect 10 achieved by Romanian athlete Nadia Comăneci during the 1976 Olympics to the groundbreaking skills demonstrated by Simone in more recent times.
In the ’90s, under the guidance of the Károlyis – a Hungarian-Romanian American couple Béla and Márta – the US Women’s Gymnastics Team flourished to become dominant. Their training methods were demanding, focusing on both technical prowess and mental fortitude. However, these methods have faced strong criticism for being verbally and psychologically abusive, resulting in some gymnasts developing eating disorders and feelings of low self-worth. Tragically, it was at the Károlyi Ranch – a training facility attended by national team members for rigorous camps – where sexual abuse incidents were reportedly carried out by Larry Nassar, a former team doctor.
Following the exposure of widespread abuse by Nassar and the understanding that the team’s success and individual athletes’ achievements had come at a great cost, there was a broad demand for systemic change within USA Gymnastics and the Olympic community, focusing especially on athlete safety and mental health issues. Biles, along with hundreds of other women and girls, voiced their opposition to Nassar and shared their personal stories, advocating for safer sporting environments and underscoring the importance of stronger safeguards against abuse.
In September 2021, a few weeks after pulling out of most events at the Tokyo Olympics, she appeared at a US Senate Hearing, accusing Nassar and linking her withdrawal to the abuse she had experienced. She explained that the trauma from Nassar’s abuse affected her significantly during the Tokyo 2020 Games, as she competed without her family’s support. Despite displaying remarkable resilience, Biles expressed regret that she was left to bear the brunt of Nassar’s abuse on her own.
When Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo 2020 games, it was due to a severe bout of “the twisties,” a mental condition characterized by losing spatial awareness and disconnection between brain and body, causing difficulty in executing certain skills. Her return to competition was at the Paris 2024 qualifying event, focusing on the vault. The vault has two high-scoring moves named after her: the Biles (two twists followed by a front layout) and the Biles II (a Yurchenko double pike). In the Netflix documentary, “Simone Biles Rising,” released prior to the Olympics, she expresses deep emotion about how every vault execution still fills her with terror, feeling like a risky endeavor to avoid death.
As a devoted fan, I must say it was nothing short of miraculous to witness Simone Biles’ performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Despite battling a calf injury and a heavily taped ankle, she dazzled us all with her incredible skills.
In a stunning performance two days after, Biles secured her second women’s all-around title at the Olympics, surpassing Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and teammate Suni Lee. This made her the first woman to win non-consecutive Olympic all-around titles in history. She faced challenges along the way, nearly losing balance on the uneven bars which caused her lead to slip slightly. However, she excelled on the balance beam and floor exercise, scoring an impressive 15.066 on floor without making a single mistake. This secured her victory with a total score of 59.131, while Andrade followed closely behind with 57.932, and Suni Lee completed the podium with 56.465.
In the 2024 Olympics on August 3rd, Simone overcame her apprehensions once more on the vault to secure her third gold medal. She received a score of 15.7 for her near-perfect version of Biles II and 14.9 for her second vault, leaving Andrade behind by a mere third of a point. However, August 5th, the final day of artistic gymnastics competition, presented an unusual ambiance during both men’s and women’s finals. The crowd occasionally silenced gymnasts from cheering on their rivals, which resulted in some stumbles and falls, affecting even US representatives Biles and Lee who finished 5th and 6th respectively on the balance beam. On the floor exercise, Andrade edged past Biles for gold by an incredibly narrow margin (0.033), with Jordan Chiles of the USA claiming bronze. The day prior, Suni Lee added another bronze to Team USA’s tally on the uneven bars.
To truly understand why Simone is widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time (GOAT), you need to comprehend that gymnastics scoring is precise, going down to decimal points. In a competition featuring top-tier athletes, she won the overall title by more than a full point, demonstrating her exceptional dominance. However, being great isn’t just about dominating a sport; it’s about transforming it. Simone’s strength, particularly on the floor, is unmatched, allowing her to perform feats never seen before. Her floor routines are stacked with challenging tumbling passes that seem effortless, leaving her barely out of breath at the end. She has been embroiled in scoring controversies, where it appears that judges either struggle to score her innovative skills or hesitate to give her the credit she deserves for fear of widening the gap between her and her competitors even more.
Simone didn’t necessarily need to go to Paris, but she didn’t have anything to prove to others or herself. However, her decision to come has significantly improved gymnastics and the entire high-level sports world. She’s started conversations about mental health that are honest and open, focusing on how we bring up young athletes, particularly girls. She’s made us question where we should draw the line between ‘toughness’ and ‘perseverance’. Simone has worked hard to reduce the stigma around mental health issues, showing us it’s okay to prioritize your mental wellbeing, take time off for emotional healing, and then return as a champion. Thank you for being so open about your feelings, Simone. You’ve been amazing for such a long time that we almost forgot you were human!
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2024-08-08 19:15