Why did Simone Biles Withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics? Explained
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Simone Biles at Tokyo Olympics
Simone Biles has recently been in the news, as she has pulled out of almost all events from the Tokyo Olympics. The most decorated female gymnast in the world, Biles had a chance to tie the record for the most decorated female gymnast after winning 4 gold medals and 1 bronze medals at the Rio Olympics.
Simone Biles was leading a team of young women into the Tokyo Olympics, with the hopes of defending their title from the previous Olympics. Simone had some shaky start to her Olympic campaign, making some uncharacteristic errors in the qualifications. Her skills were enough however, as she qualified in first place for the individual all around finals, in second place for the team all around finals, and qualified for all individual apparatus finals.
Biles and her team started on the vault in the women’s team all around finals, but Biles had a disastrous vault, as she took a big step on landing, managing to only score a 13.766. She soon left the competition floor, and Jordan Chiles was getting ready to replace her in the second rotation on the uneven bars. Biles soon came out and announced that she would be pulling out of the team all around finals, and the team went on to win silver.
A day later, Biles announced on social media that she would be pulling out of the individual all around finals, and then a few days later news was received that she would not be taking part in the vault and uneven bars apparatus finals as well. She would later go one to pull out of the floor exercise as well, and her participance in the balance beam finals was not yet confirmed.
Why is Simone Biles not Participating in the Event Finals at Tokyo Olympics?
Simone pulled herself out of the competition after a poor vault performance, as she did not want to get seriously injured and did not want to put her team in a bad spot by giving a poor performance and putting them out of medal contention. Biles said that it had been too stressful for her, she had a long year and unfortunately she was not having fun anymore. She said that she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders and cited mental health concerns as well.
Biles has been struggling with what is known as the “twisties” by gymnasts. It is a complete loss of awareness when a gymnast is in the air, and they cannot judge where they are and how they might land. It is common in gymnasts and is dangerous, as it may lead to serious injuries. Simone struggled due to this reason on the vault, as she did not realise how many twists she was doing in the air.
Biles is also facing mental health problems, and was being continuously being evaluated to ensure that she was healthy enough to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. She also said that her mind and body were simply not in sync and she did not want to do something silly. Biles has been receiving immense support from everyone, and is being applauded for putting her mental health first.
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Saivee Phatak
(1164 Articles Published)