Everything Simone Biles said about Kerri Strug and her comparisons with 1996 Olympic Champion's 'heroic' performance

Netflix’s new documentary series on the renowned American artistic gymnast Simone Biles is garnering significant attention ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The two-part docuseries focuses on the life of the most decorated female gymnast, especially during the period between the Tokyo Olympics and the Paris Olympics.

The series also covers Simone Biles' decision to withdraw from multiple events at the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health reasons. Biles' decision to withdraw garnered both support and criticism.

While many praised her bravery, others criticized her for withdrawing from the Olympic stage. Her withdrawal resulted in comparisons with Kerri Strug, the retired American gymnast who competed in the 1996 Olympics on vault despite an ankle injury, contributing to the USA's gold medal victory in the women's team final.

In her docuseries 'Simone Biles Rising', Biles discussed the incident involving Kerri Strug from the 1996 Olympic women's team finals, adding,

“Kerri Strug, heroic. Yes, I think we’ve all seen it, and we’ve all praised her for it. But, there’s a lot of controversy over it. Watching that video, total bada**. You, go girl. And I know some of us have even competed on injuries, but I definitely think about it a little bit differently,” Biles said [26:20 onwards].

She added:

“I know after Tokyo that video got brought back up. Like ‘Why couldn’t you be like Kerri Strug?’ Then, a lot of people were like ‘Absolutely not. Kerri shouldn’t have done that back in the day’. And may be if my ankle was fractured, yeah, I would’ve still done it, but that wasn’t the case. Where I was mentally and physically, it could’ve potentially been more than an ankle or something. It could’ve been worse.” [28:20]

Notably, the vault Kerri Strug performed during the 1996 team finals was her last high-level gymnastics meet, as she never competed in another big event again and eventually retired from the sport.

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Kerri Strug showed her support for Simone Biles after withdrawal from women’s team in Tokyo

Simone Biles at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The two-time Olympic medalist Kerri Strug expressed her support for Simone Biles following her withdrawal from the event. She posted about it on Twitter (now X), stating:

“Sending love to you @Simone_Biles 🐐❤️-Team UNITED States of America 🇺🇸”

Despite advancing to several finals and helping the USA women's team reach the finals, Biles' performances were affected by multiple stumbles in the qualifications, which indicated that she wasn’t at her best self.

However, during the vault, her first event in the women's team final, Biles experienced 'Twisties', a condition where her mind lost awareness of her body's position, which ultimately impacted her performance.

Owing to this, she withdrew from multiple events at the Tokyo Olympics, including the women's team final, individual all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise finals, prioritizing her mental health over competition.