Gymnast Simone Biles didn’t expect her Olympics to go the way it did. The gold medal favorite left Tokyo with silver and bronze medals.
Biles pulled herself out of numerous events after coming down with a case of the “twisties.”
In an interview with New York Magazine, Biles said she had no air awareness.
She compared it to someone losing their sight.
“Say up until you’re 30 years old, you have your complete eyesight,” Biles said. “One morning, you wake up, you can’t see (expletive), but people tell you to go on and do your daily job as if you still have your eyesight. You’d be lost, wouldn’t you?”
Biles told New York Magazine that she should have never made it to Tokyo.
She said the mental toll of being a survivor of sexual assault was a lot. Biles was one of Larry Nassar’s victims. He served as the doctor for U.S. Gymnastics.
“I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years,” Biles says in the article. “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.”
Biles said she learned a lot about herself after pulling out of the Olympic competitions.
“I wouldn’t change anything, because everything happens for a reason. And I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself,” Biles said.
Biles said she is back in therapy, but no longer training. However, she isn't completely done with gymnastics. She said she is ready to go on tour with other members of Team USA.
