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“after the performance i did, i just didn’t want to go on,” biles told reporters. “i have to focus on my mental health and well-being. i just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now…. we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.”
she said she was inspired in part by tennis star naomi osaka , who withdrew from the french open in may when organizers wouldn’t let her skip post-game press conferences, which she said were difficult for her at a time when she was under enormous pressure. “i’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes [sic] mental health ,” osaka said at the time.
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she has spoken about the heavy emotional toll of the pandemic, telling glamour in june that she thought about giving up gymnastics during the seven-week lockdown when she couldn’t train. when she did return to the sport, she made a conscious effort to strike a work-life balance, she said: “before i would only focus on the gym… but me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym.”
being extraordinary comes with high stakes . professional athletes are under incredible pressure, even when they’re not competing at the olympics — arguably the highest-level, most scrutinized sporting event in the world. “stress-related illnesses are extremely common in professional sports, and they are becoming more so as the pressures on athletes increase,” dr. barry cripps, chairman of the sports and exercise division of the british psychological society, told the independent . “the expectations are enormous and sometimes people cannot handle it.”
biles also has to carry another kind of stress. she was one of more than 150 girls and young women sexually abused by larry nassar, who was the team doctor for the u.s.a gymnastics women’s national team for 18 years. many victims said that the organization looked the other way and failed to protect the young athletes.
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“biles had dedicated herself to gymnastics, sacrificing a normal life of school, dances, football games and friends for the grinding pursuit of perfection,” a new york times profile read. “she also came to believe that her sport didn’t care for her at all.”
“therapy has helped a lot as well as medicine and i feel like that’s all been going really well,” she added . “but whenever you get in a high stress situation you freak out and you don’t really know how to handle all of those emotions, especially being here at the olympic games.”
