Simone Biles saw therapist ahead of gold medal performance

(NEXSTAR) — Just because she won gold and proved she’s the best gymnast in the world doesn’t mean Simone Biles doesn’t still work to maintain good mental health.

After pulling out of competition three years ago, she wasn’t sure whether she could compete again. Following Thursday’s big victory in the all-around competition, Biles revealed that she had “worked really hard, mentally and physically” with the help of her team.

“So just making sure I’m mentally well, I think you see that out on the competition floor,” she said.

Biles held off Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade to win her second gold medal in Paris and sixth Olympic gold overall.

And how did she start one of the biggest days of her life?

“Even this morning at 7 a.m., I saw my therapist,” Biles told reporters.

Biles now has nine Olympic medals, six of them gold. And while she says she doesn’t keep track of these things, she sort of does. The GOAT necklace she rocked in the aftermath isn’t a coincidence, even if she maintains she’s just “Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip.”

She’s also the third woman to become a two-time Olympic champion, joining Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968. Oh, and she’s the oldest to finish atop the all-around podium since then-30-year-old Maria Gorokhovskaya of the Soviet Union won the first-ever Olympic all-around in Helsinki in 1952.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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