Simone Biles decided to withdraw from the Tokyo 2020 team gymnastics finals on Tuesday because after her vault, things didn’t feel right, saying that mental health is more than sports.
Simone Biles, who posted on her Instagram just a day before about feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, decided that rather than risk injury- and cost the rest of the team a medal- she needed to just stop.
“It’s like fighting all those demons and coming out here. I have to put my pride aside. I have to do it for the team,” she told reporters after the team competition, in which her teammates stepped up and took silver, one member only having a brief time to warm up before her routine.
“And then at the end of the day, it’s like ‘you know what, I have to do what is right for me and focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and my well-being,'” she said.
Simone Biles, considered by many to be the greatest female gymnast of all time, kept open the possibility of still competing in Toyo, but said that she will take it a day a time. Individual all-around and apparatus competitions still remain.
Sources: BBC, IOL
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