"Didn't want her to feel alone" - Simone Biles on reaching out to Mikaela Shiffrin during Beijing 2022

Simone Biles and Mikaela Shiffrin are two Olympic gold medalists, but at different kinds of Olympics.

Both athletes recently joined host and Olympic swimming champion Missy Franklin for an Instagram live session on the Laureus Sports handle. They discussed the importance of mental fitness and how athletes should deal with it.

Simone Biles talked about Shiffrin's struggles with mental health and how she managed to help her:

"I saw the experience that Mikaela went through and I had just gone through that, so I didn't want her to feel alone and (I was) like, 'Hey, it's OK. This stuff happens. You're still amazing, who cares about the comments?'"

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Simone Biles and Mikaela Shiffrin open up about their struggles with mental health

Franklin, who has five gold medals in Olympic swimming, hosted the discussion with Biles, a four-time Olympian champion and seven-time medalist in Olympic gymnastics, as well as Mikaela Shiffrin, who in addition to her two Olympic crowns is presently trying to break the all-time World Cup victory record.

Simone Biles and Shiffrin first met at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022. Biles reached out to the skier at the 2022 Winter Olympics and opened up about her challenges in the competition and the unfavorable feedback she received from fans.

This happened only a few months after Biles prioritized her mental health by pulling out of multiple finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Simone Biles also revealed how she kept on messaging Mikaela Shiffrin throughout the Games:

"Half of the time, the comments are people at home that have never even done a sport or gotten an award so they don't realize how hard we work, and like Mikaela said, they only tune in every four years, so they don't see all the hard work that goes beyond that."

She continued:

"You don't understand how hurtful it is already to feel like I've failed myself, then you have the weight of the world, everybody, telling you failed and all of this stuff. So, I just didn't want her to feel alone."

Mikaela Shiffrin also opened up about how COVID-19 affected the lives of athletes and what effects it had on their mental health:

"When you're at the Olympics, especially during COVID, you're in the village, you can't go anywhere, and in winter, you don't really want go anywhere, so there's so much of it that actually makes you feel a little trapped but you also feel very disconnected from home and from the people who are cheering for you."

Mikaela Shiffrin added about the impact social media sites like Twitter and Instagram have had on an athlete's mind:

"It's always like, 'You choked. Don't even come back to the U.S. It's unbelievable you could fail so badly.'"

Simone Biles also shared similar experiences from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She also shared the reasons for her 'twisties' and pulling out of the event:

"For me, I had a similar experience before with the comments and stuff like that, but my decision was to pull out of the Olympics, so I know how hurtful it is and how much it just kind of sucks. You work your whole entire life and the Olympics only happens every four years and if you get to go to more than one, then you have double the luck."