The win at the Paris Olympics was an emotional affair for Simone Biles, who wasn’t even sure if she’d be competing a year ago. Her journey from focusing on healing herself to bouncing back to the vault like a champion has witnessed several changes.
Recently, she sat down to try and reflect on how far she’d come from refusing to visit her home gym to crushing it at the Olympics. In a conversation with the Today Show, she revealed what it meant to be the most decorated gymnast of all time.
She began with a confession about her true feelings about winning multiple Olympic medals throughout various events this year. Not only could she not process the gravity of all that she had managed to achieve in a few days, but she also felt that it wouldn’t sink in until later.
However, that didn’t mean she didn’t have pent-up emotions that she had buried inside for so long.
Biles‘ long and arduous journey to the Paris Olympics was full of unsure twists and last-moment hiccups before achieving more than what she could hope for. And all of it burst out in the end in the form of tears of joy.
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“Yesterday, once we got back to the village, I looked at Jordan, and I just started bawling my eyes out.”
Whether or not she had the time and space to process what happened, one can’t deny the sheer pressure taken off from her chest, now that she had wrapped up her events. This year was the era of a calm and composed Biles against all odds, and it paid off well.
“I was so full of emotion, and I finally released all of that. I was so proud, happy, bittersweet that the journey is over…it’s so crazy it happened so quick. My third Olympics!”
Truly, Biles has been a beacon of resilience throughout the event since her downfall in Tokyo. The ‘forbidden’ Olympics, as she once referred to them, are now a chapter of the past as she aims to move on. But not before she took the time to celebrate herself and her achievements.
Biles wants people to stop asking her this one common question
An athlete’s life goes beyond their achievements and milestones, for they are more than their performance on stage. Biles stands by this notion as she works towards being a responsible public figure beyond gymnastics.
She advocates for good mental health, speaks up on several social justice issues, and is bold about her stance on different subjects of debate.
However, since she wrapped up the Paris Olympics gymnastics events, a frequently asked question has bothered her for a while. In a post on X, she asked people to not hound athletes by asking them about their future plans upon winning Olympic medals.
Getting to the Olympics, let alone winning a place on the podium, was a stressful affair for everyone involved. Winning deserves time off and celebration of an achievement instead of intense future planning.
