Behind the Scenes of Gymnastics: Simone Biles

By T. Giannella

During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles took a step back and withdrew from most of her events because she had experienced what some call the twisties, which is when a gymnast loses awareness in the air, causing their landing to be very painful. Simone chose to leave and to focus on her mental health. Sometimes the audience doesn’t know what is happening behind the scenes, they went to the Olympics expecting greatness from Simone Biles, but after she stepped back, nobody knew what was happening.

Most athletes start training since childhood; this was a struggle for Simone. Her mother struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol, and Simone’s father had left them. Her mother was unable to look after Simone and her three siblings, so after a while in foster care, the four of them were taken in by Simone’s grandparents, Ron Biles and his wife. One day, Simone went on a field trip to a gym and saw older girls practising gymnastics. Intrigued by their abilities and movements, Simone started copying them. The coach, shocked by Simone’s capacity to perform every move exactly like the girls, sent Simone’s family a note telling them that they should enroll Simone in regular classes. Her family was very proud and enrolled her in a gymnastics training.  

Simone described her childhood self as “just a very brave child.” After that, Simone trained very seriously and dedicated herself completely to gymnastics, later on becoming number 1 in the world. Many don’t know about Simone’s intense backstory and think she just had everything handed to her.

Overcoming fear is a harsh and difficult part of sports. Simone Biles was always fearful of something happening in the Tkachev bars. Anything could happen. It's like that with every sport, but it's what they do to overcome that fear that matters. Simone had an incident on the bars and chose to ask her coach to go back to the fundamental basics, and that helped her move on and achieve more and more. She said, “If you're fearful of any skill, I would say to go all the way back to the fundamentals of that skill. Set up some drills. Ask your coach if they can spot you so that you gain confidence in that skill again.” Athletes almost always come back and try again; they never end the lesson on a bad note, and that’s what's important. Nelson Mandela once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”  

Simone’s story showed us that behind all those records and skills are hours and hours of dedication.