Simone Biles put on a show at the Paris Olympics and walked away with another three gold medals and a silver to add to her extraordinary collection.
But the road to get to Paris wasn’t easy.
At Tokyo 2020, Biles suddenly started suffering from the “twisties,” a mysterious phenomenon that suddenly means a gymnast is no longer able to do a twisting skill they’ve done thousands of times before.
Biles told CNN Sport’s Coy Wire that her return to the Olympics was for no one else, and that past experience made her participation and performances in Paris all the sweeter.
“It was important to me because nobody forced me to be out there on that stage,” Biles said. “I solely did it for myself and I’m in a really good spot mentally and physically. So doing this for just me meant the world.”
Despite overcoming them, she admits that doubts sometimes still begin to creep in.
“I dealt with them in therapy. Obviously, you always have those thoughts coming into the back of your head, but just trying to stay as positive as possible, going back to what I know, thinking about my therapy tactics – and it worked.”
Winning silver… despite an injury
To make her silver medal-winning performance on the floor exercise on Monday even more impressive, Biles arrived to the interview wearing a protective boot on her left foot.
The 27-year-old had to have her leg taped for her performance after suffering a fall in the warmup. She had been dealing with pain in her left calf ahead of the Paris Olympics and aggravated the injury during qualifying round on the second day of the Olympics, again in a warmup for the floor exercise.
It didn’t slow her down much as she won gold with Team USA in the team competition and then took the individual all-around and vault gold medals. She finished her Olympics with the silver on the floor and a fifth place finish in the individual balance beam competition.
After the floor final, Biles and her teammate, bronze medalist Jordan Chiles, created an instantly viral image by bowing in honor on either side of gold medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil.
It quickly became one of the enduring images of these Olympic Games. It was a display of sportsmanship and humility, and encapsulated what it means for athletes to have the Olympic spirit.
Without doubt, it will go down as one of the most iconic Olympic moments.
“I think it was really important for that moment,” Biles told CNN’s Wire. “Obviously, it was just me and Jordan being me and Jordan, but I know it was really special and it was very impactful for kids to see that. You win with grace, you lose with grace.”
Message to girls: ‘Stand in your power’
During these Olympics, Biles faced comments online about her appearance, specifically her hairstyle.
She hit back at those critics in an Instagram post and had a message for young girls around the world who have faced similar disparaging comments.
“You guys are beautiful, confident,” she said.
“You guys are so smart. Stand in your power, believe in yourself and you guys are going to be just fine – and I’ll be here to support you every step of the way. I know it’s hard, but you guys are going to do it and you are going to do big things.”
While flipping and twisting through the air multiple times is something most of us will never experience, it’s something Biles has become intimately experienced with and had to fight through, as the twisties in Tokyo showed.
While it may be a terrifying prospect to most people, Biles said she still finds it “really exciting” after all these years training and competing.
“Honestly, sometimes it feels like time goes really fast, like the floor comes sooner than it should,” she said, laughing.
“But most of the time it does feel like you’re up there for a while and you’re just waiting to come back down. But it is really exciting.”
Biles is known for being one of the most tenacious competitors in all of sport, so it makes sense that she sees her spirit animal as the “honey badger,” a ferocious little animal.
Outside of the gym, however, her other spirit animal is a bit more docile.
“Honey badger in the gym, sloth outside,” she said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
