Simone Biles takes control of her mental health

Simone Biles received worldwide admiration this year after she pulled out of the first five scheduled gymnastic events at the Tokyo Summer Olympics to prioritize her mental health. After taking a break during competition, she returned to the balance beam stage and won a bronze medal.

She spoke about experiencing the twisties during competition. The twisties is a condition in which gymnasts lose their orientation in the air and cannot control how much their body twists or how they land on the ground. Now a few months removed from the Tokyo Summer Olympics, she spoke more in depth with The Cut about how her mental health has affected her, her overall professional performance, and decision to perform in the future.

Simone Biles speaks on her mental health prior to the Olympics.

Simon spoke candidly to The Cut about her mental health prior to her Tokyo performance. She was quoted saying that she should have quit prior to her Tokyo appearance and that the Larry Nassar case case played a significant role on her mental health.

She said:

"“It was too much. But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6 years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.”"

But she stressed throughout the interview that she pushed through training because she felt the pressure to represent the U.S. Gymnastics team after the organization failed to represent her team after sexual abuse.

She wanted to push away from people’s expectation’s of her by taking control of her mental health since and that was bigger than the time it took her to built her gymnastics skill.  While she does not mention whether she is completely done with competition, she makes it clear that she is taking a break for herself. And that is such a sign of girl power if there was one!