Simone Biles Says She Feels Like Her Body Is 'Slowly Starting to Shut Down' Amid Paris Olympics
The Team USA superstar admitted to feeling exhausted before her last beam and floor events in Paris.
Simone Biles confesses that her body is starting to feel some strain amid the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During a “Get Ready With Me” TikTok video shared on Tuesday, the 27-year-old gold medalist talked about feeling fatigued as she reaches the end of the Olympic games.
“I'm really tired. I feel like my body is slowly starting to shut down, like it's ready to be done,” the Team USA superstar confessed in the three minute video.
“But tomorrow I compete in the last two finals there are for women's gymnastics so I will be doing beam and floor. Which [I’m] so excited about never doing a floor routine again,” she added.
Biles also took a moment to thank her fans for their unwavering support from the 2016 Rio Olympics into the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to her “unreal” experience at this year’s games in Paris, especially considering she never imagined herself competing again.
“I've achieved more than my wildest dreams,” Biles said towards the end of the clip.
“You know, I never thought I was going to be competing again because that's how terrified I was of gymnastics and twisting,” she lamented. “There's a lot of trauma there, so I've had to put in a lot of work. But shout out to my therapist, and shout out to therapy.”
As reported by People, Biles recalled a traumatizing experience with the “twisties” mid-air during her warmup vault at the Tokyo Olympics in her Netflix documentary, Simone Biles Rising.
The term is defined as a phenomenon where gymnasts lose understanding of their spatial awareness while in the air, according to People’s Julie Mazziotta. The “twisties” put competitors at risk of injury when they land.
The episode led Biles to withdraw from the team competition, leading to widespread media scrutiny, and prompted her to seek therapy and take a two-year hiatus from competing.
“Three years ago, I never thought I'd step foot on a gymnastics floor again just because of everything that had happened,” Biles said during a press conference last Thursday.
She continued, “But with the help of [gymnastics coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi], I got back in the gym and worked really hard, mentally and physically. Even this morning at 7 a.m. I saw my therapist, and there's a time change. She is so amazing for allowing me to do that these couple of days here in Paris.”
“I’m just making sure I'm mentally well. I think you see that out on the competition floor,” she added.
Biles completed what she called her “Redemption Tour” on Monday for the beam and floor exercise finals, earning silver. She leaves Paris with three gold medals.
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