Simone Biles sadly admits she's 'still scared to do gymnastics' after Olympics

Olympic champion and the most decorated athlete in history, Team USA gymnast Simone Biles gave an emotional interview on Thursday where she admitted that she’s “scared to do gymnastics” after experiencing a case of the “twisties” during the Tokyo Olympics this summer. Biles withdrew from several events for her own safety and mental health. 

“Yeah, I don’t twist,” she told Hoda Kotb on the TODAY show. “But everything else just weighs so heavy and I watch the girls do it and it’s not the same.”

“The twisting, once I got back will come back, but I’m still scared to do gymnastics,” she later said.

When asked how she feels about not being able to do spins and twists in the air during her gymnastic routines for her Gold Over America Tour [GOAT], she visibly welled up with tears. “Yeah, to do something that I’ve done forever and just not be able to do it because of everything I’ve gone through is really crazy, because I love this sport so much. It’s hard.”

After returning from the Tokyo Olympics, Biles testified at an open Senate hearing about the FBI’s handling of the investigation into abuse perpetrated by former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar. Biles and 330 other women have accused Nassar of sexually abusing them while under his care. He is currently serving a life sentence.

She referenced the mental anguish and pain that ordeal has taken on her gymnastics career, adding, “I don’t think people understand the magnitude of what I go through but for so many years. To go through everything that I’ve gone through, put on a front…”

“I’m proud of myself,” she added.

Last month in an interview with The Cut, Biles said she “should have quit gymnastics” after enduring years of abuse and then mental health issues resulting from the abuse. 

“If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” Simone told the outlet, which described her as welling up with tears as she spoke

“I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years. It was too much,” she continued. “But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6 years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.”

Simone did keep up the morale of her 2020 Olympic team even after withdrawing, acting as a pretty incredible cheerleader for her teammates.

Since the summer games, we have seen her present at the VMAs and also walk the red carpet at The Met Gala.

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