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    Simone Biles’ Olympics Resume Proves She’s a One-of-a-Kind Athlete

    By Hayley Hynes,

    1 day ago
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    A lot has changed for Simone Biles since her 2016 Olympic Games debut. For starters, she’s now married to Chicago Bears player Jonathan Owens, who’s been spotted proudly supporting his other half from the stands in Paris. Biles has also had a few years to focus on her mental health after coming down with an unexpected case of the “twisties” at the delayed 2021 event in Tokyo. Her decision to withdraw from multiple events at the time wasn’t an easy one. Still, the 27-year-old’s decision to put herself first has inspired countless other Black women to follow in her footsteps while facing their adversities. The ups and downs she’s faced over the past decade are a true testament to the black-haired beauty’s character. Ahead of her highly anticipated performance this week, let’s review Simone Biles’ Olympic history .

    Simone Biles Made a Grant Debut at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

    The Ohio-born athlete first qualified for the Olympic Games in 2016, when they were hosted in Rio. At the time she was just 19 years old, but her presence was certainly felt in the team final with Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocain and Laurie Hernandez. This performance earned the team a gold medal , and Biles conquered the all-around, vault and floor exercise finals, bringing home four first-place prizes in total. During her debut, she set the American record for most gold medals won in women’s gymnastics in a single Games.

    During Biles’ beam final, she was deducted half of a point for grabbing the beam with her hand after losing her balance. Nevertheless, she still managed to take home a bronze medal (Lauren Hernandez of Team USA won silver and Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands took gold) and became the first American female gymnast to bear the flag for her country at the Olympics’ closing ceremony.

    Gymnast Reminds Us of the Importance of Mental Health at the Tokyo Games

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    (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

    After her success in 2016, the pressure was on for Simone Biles to perform at the top of her game in Tokyo. She had extra time to prepare after the Olympics were postponed until 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and things looked good early on as she was the only athlete to qualify for every individual final. Unfortunately, during the team final, the gymnast visibly lost her position in the air on the vault, finishing only 1.5 of her planned 2.5 twists. This was reportedly due to “twisties,” known by gymnasts as an inability to track where they are in the air.

    She withdrew from the rest of the team final, but still earned a silver medal thanks to Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and Sunisa Lee’s efforts without her – Russia brought home the gold. Ultimately, Biles felt it was also best to remove herself from uneven bars, vault and floor finals to protect her mental and physical health. Fans still got to see her compete on the balance beam in a reduced-difficulty routine, winning a second bronze medal to add to her collection.

    “After the performance I did, I just didn’t want to go on,” the record-breaking athlete told BBC Sport at the time. “I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now. We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do. I don’t trust myself as much anymore. Maybe it’s getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world.”

    Biles went on to remind the world that she’s a person before she’s an athlete, hoping for their empathy. “I didn’t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. ​I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It’s so big, it’s the Olympic Games. At the end of the day, we don’t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher,” she explained. It was among the most terrifying moments of her career, but her contemporaries and fans were proud of the American icon for trusting her gut and knowing when to step down.

    What Can We Expect From Simone Biles at the 2024 Paris Olympics?

    After seeing two radically different sides of Simone Biles at the 2016 and 2021 Olympic Games, there’s more curiosity than ever before around the seven-time medalist. Fans are reluctant to apply too much pressure to the 27-year-old so that her mental health doesn’t waver, but she’s moving with total confidence ahead of the team finals on Tuesday, July 30th. During podium training, she nailed her Yurchenko double pike vault (also known as the Biles II) and she’s submitting a new skill on uneven bars this year. Should she complete the latter in competition, it will become her sixth eponymous skill to date.

    Things are looking good for Biles, though she did tweak her calf over the weekend while warming up for a floor exercise. She left briefly with Coach Cecile Landi to have her leg taped up but returned to the arena not long after only to post the top scores in the floor and vault categories. According to The Star , US team leaders contemplated holding the performer out of uneven bars during the upcoming team finals to give her a break, but she’s now expected to complete in all areas as America hopes to take their championship title back from Russia.

    Biles’ teammates at the 2024 Olympic Games include Jordan Chiles, who came in fourth in all-around qualifying, and Sunisa Lee, the 2020 champion. All three women will appear in all four events, but Jade Carey is expected to sit out of the floor competition, despite coming out on top in 2021; she’s reportedly dealing with an illness that saw her struggling on the floor during qualifying. Team USA’s youngest member, 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, is not scheduled to compete in Paris. She was part of the bars and beam lineup at qualifiers, but her scores were ultimately dropped from the team total.

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