“Simone is ready. She’s physically, mentally ready. She’s excited and she wants to do it,” hercoach Cecile Landitold PEOPLE on July 14, just hours before the team’s flight to Tokyo on July. “But I’m a little bit worried about the no fans. We were hoping the Japanese public was allowed. Simone was hoping so too. That’s the only thing we are a little worried about: how are you going to handle it when you walk in and there’s nobody.”
Simone Biles competing in Tokyo.Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/Getty
Biles had prepared herself for the empty stadium, and after a year’s delay due to COVID-19 — while still healing from the trauma she underwent asa survivor of convicted sex abuserand former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar — she was eager to wow the world at the Olympics with her gravity-defying signature skills and possibly become, at 24, the oldest female gymnast to win the all-around gold in 50 years.
“I’m looking forward to competing after the crazy year, the hard year we’ve all had,” Biles told PEOPLE before the games. “I want to bring entertainment.”
For more on Biles’s Olympic journey, pick up this week’s issue of People, available on newsstands Friday.
But just 10 days after arriving in Tokyo, as the team began qualifying rounds, it became clear to Biles that something wasn’t right. She stumbled on her floor routine. That night, shewrote on Instagram: “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times.”
Days later, she couldn’t execute on the vault and pulled herself out of the team competition, later explaining that she wassuffering from the twisties— a lack of air awareness — and needed to focus on her mental health.
In that moment, Biles gave up her hopes of besting her four gold and one bronze medal count from Rio in 2016, but she became something more than an Olympic champion. In the stands, she was chief cheerleader for her team,which went on to win silver.
“I know how hard it is for her to stand on the sidelines because that’s not who she is,” teammateGrace McCallumtold PEOPLE. “So having her cheering us on meant a lot.”
(L-R) Simone Biles, MyKayla Skinner and Grace McCallum.
And for millions around the world, she became a hero forstanding up for herself— a skill she says she’s worked on the past few years.
“The biggest part of my growth journey has been finding my own voice and speaking up for what I believe in,” she told PEOPLE before the games.
It took courage to step back and it took courage toreturn to compete on the balance beam, the one apparatus that she didn’t win gold on in 2016.
“At the end of the day, we’re not just entertainment,” she told reporters after her bronze medal finish on the beam, “We’re human.”
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
source: people.com
