Simone Biles Reflects on the Most Difficult Moments of Her Athletic Career
Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in World Champion history. At 25, the record-breaking athlete has earned 32 Olympic and World Champion medals and rocked the gymnastics world with her never-before-seen skills. Biles’s consistency and determination have earned her some of the biggest accolades of her athletic career. But that same resolve led to a tipping point in her mental health journey that she was forced to confront before the entire world at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
On April 27, cybersecurity company Axonius released an interview with Biles in which she reflects on some of the biggest setbacks of her athletic career and how those moments helped shape her mental health journey. Over dinner with her family — including her father, Ron Biles; her mother, Nellie Biles; her sister, Adria Biles; and her best friend, Rachel Moore — Biles explains that her personal well-being took a backseat to her hunger for success over the years, culminating in a moment of anxiety that caused her body and mind to “shut down.”
Simone Biles at the 2013 Classics
In July 2013, as her name began to shift into the spotlight, Biles competed at the US Classics gymnastics tournament. During the competition, she fell several times and twisted her ankle during a floor exercise. Heartbroken, Biles cut the event short and did not perform her vault routine. Following the “disastrous” competition, Biles experienced a drastic drop in her self-confidence. With support from her family, friends, and teammates, she began seeing a sports psychologist, who taught her to focus less on perfection and more on enjoying the sport.
“For a while, I saw a psychologist once every two weeks,” Biles said in an interview with Health in 2019. “That helped me get in tune with myself so that I felt more comfortable and less anxious.”
“The 2013 Classics, for me, [were] kind of a turning point, not only because it was so disastrous, but afterward, I got the proper help that I needed,” she says in the Axonius interview, speaking to her father, who insists she was “very reluctant” to get help. “I went to visit a sports psychologist — though, I didn’t want to. You guys took me there to kind of find the joy in gymnastics again because I was so nervous about all eyes being on me at the time and it just was not a very good meet.”
Recalling her mindset at the time, Biles continues, “I just think I was overwhelmed with the atmosphere. It was my first year [as a] senior; I could potentially make the [World Championship] team. The stakes were high, and I think I just freaked out. I think it put life back into perspective that gymnastics isn’t everything.”