Simone Biles is proving once and for all this week why she’s the greatest of all time—by deciding that not even an Olympic gold medal is more important than her mental health.
The 24-year-old shocked the world Tuesday when she abruptly withdrew from the Olympic team final—not because of injury, but because she wasn’t in a good “headspace.”
After admitting to her 5.4 million Instagram followers Sunday that she felt like she had the “weight of the world on [her] shoulders,” Biles went into the first rotation of the team finals on Tuesday feeling “off.”
She was attempting an advanced vault move which involves a back handspring with two-and-a-half twists in the air before landing. It’s a skill that Biles has executed flawlessly in previous competition, but fumbled through, uncharacteristically Tuesday.
“After the performance that I did, I didn’t want to go into any of the other events second guessing myself,” Biles later told reporters. “So I thought it was better if I took a step back and let these girls go out there and do the job and they did just that.”