"Mentally exhausting"- Simone Biles opens up about competing in Tokyo Olympics without fans and family amid the COVID-19 outbreak

Simone Biles recently appeared in an interview, where she opened up about the hardships she and her team faced during the Tokyo Olympics. The American gymnast wrapped up her Paris Olympics campaign by winning the title of the most decorated gymnast in history.

Biles won four medals at the 2024 Summer Games, of which three were gold and one silver. She won her first gold in the team all-around event, where she and her team scored a total of 171.296 points. The gymnast's next gold was in the individual all-around event, where she registered a score of 59.131.

Biles won her third gold medal in Paris in the vault event, where she attained 15.300 points to stand atop the podium, and won a silver medal in the floor exercise, where she gained 14.133 points.

Ahead of this, Biles competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was an entirely different experience for the gymnast, where she won two medals, of which one was silver and the other was bronze. She faced twisties (a mental block in gymnastics) during the 2020 Summer Games, which eventually led to her withdrawing from the event.

She recently appeared in an interview with NESN, hosted by George Balekji, and spoke about how "mentally exhausting" the Tokyo Olympics was for her. Initially, she spoke about her time at the Rio Olympics and said that she and her team were programmed to win gold there.

"Rio, I would say I was so naive about what was going on and what was happening and I think we were so mentally programmed that we knew what would happen if we won Gold, so we kind of just went out there, did our job, a little bit robotic," said Simone Biles. (3:25 onwards...)

She continued speaking about the adversities she faced during the Tokyo Games and highlighted the issue of COVID-19, which led to the absence of fans and family members in the audience and affected the morale of the gymnasts.

"..Then Tokyo obviously, the circumstances were a little different because of Covid, so we tried to push the best we could without that fan interaction that we have that sometimes we feed off the crowd to have better performances, as well as not having family and friends in the crowd to support us, so I would say, that was a little bit mentally exhausting more because everyone was going through things and we still had to go out there and put on a show on the Olympic stage."

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Why did Simone Biles call her experience at the Tokyo Olympics a 'blessing in disguise'?

In the aforementioned interview, Simone Biles spoke about the trials and tribulations she faced as a gymnast during the Tokyo Olympics. The 27-year-old revealed that, although the incident was challenging at the time, it eventually played a huge role in her growth. She stated that the incident then was a "blessing" for her because it helped her become mentally stable.

"I think it was true really a blessing in disguise because if what didn't happen in Tokyo I truly don't believe I'd be in a mentally stable position and I also believe I wouldn't be able to get on my social media platforms and share my story with people and resonate with them and encourage them to get the help that they deserve," Simone Biles said.

She added:

"So, I'm really blessed and grateful that it played out that way and grateful that I got to share my story and be raw vulnerable and open and honest because I've always wanted to do that with my fan base and for them to see me as human rather than just Simone Biles and I think they saw just that. Yeah it was really nice.

Simone Biles is currently performing in the Gold Over America Tour, which commenced on September 16, 2024, at Oceanside and their current stop is Boston. The gymnast and her team will next be performing in Baltimore on October 8.