LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: American artistic gymnast Simone Biles initially had doubts about making a comeback after the seven-time Olympic medalist was away from international competition for two years.
Biles, who is tied with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast, shared that she had to conquer her fears in the gym in an interview with Olympics.com.
The 26-year-old also credited her fellow gymnasts for encouraging her along the way.
What did Simone Biles say?
“I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to compete again cause there were multiple times this year where I was in the gym and I was like, I’m actually terrified of this full in,” Biles said.
“Like, I’m not doing it again, never gonna do it, and then I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna come back another day, another day," she said.
She added, “But I also think the girls on the team really helped me with that, because they were like no, Simone, just come in, like come on. And I’m like, okay you're right, I can’t give up now because then I’ll forever be afraid of it.”
Biles landed her signature now-namesake vault at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship prelims
Biles landed her signature now-namesake vault, the “Biles II,” also known as the Yurchenko double pike vault, in the preliminaries at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship on Sunday, October 1.
According to the Associated Press, the five-time all-around world champion posted an all-around total of 58.865 to lead qualifying.
Simone Biles spoke about returning to the competition after two years
The iconic athlete spoke to People in August about making her return to the competition after being removed from a very public battle waged during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the dreaded "Twisties" which led her to recalibrate her mindset.
“I feel like in the very beginning I was very nervous, obviously to step back out there because a lot of athletes when they take a couple years off, you have a little bit of doubt if you're going to even be the same athlete you were, how strong you were going to be,” she told the outlet.
She added, “I think I've always had the competitive drive, so I don't think that taking the time off taught me a lot about the competitive side of me. I think it was more about the personal side and getting to truly take care of myself mentally and physically and make sure everything is in tune so that whenever I am competing everything goes well.”
And now, as she aims for her sixth all-around world championship, she shared with Olympics.com that she’s also bringing a fine-tuned perspective about it all.
“Before everybody defined success for me, even if I had my own narrative that I wanted, so now it’s just like showing up, being in a good head place, having fun out there, and whatever happens happens,” Biles said.
