“We're not just entertainment” - Simone Biles shed light on mental health after winning bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics

Simone Biles, going into the Tokyo Olympics, was the favorite to win multiple golds in artistic gymnastics. However, after a certain incident during one of her performances, she withdrew from all competitions.

However, it wasn't the end of the road at the event for her. She returned to perform in the Balance Beam Finals and won the bronze medal.

After her performance, she gave an interview on a panel with other team USA gymnasts. In the interview, Biles was asked about her mental health situation to which she replied:

"At the end of the day, we're not just entertainment, we're humans and there are things going on behind the scenes that we're also trying to juggle as well on top of sports."

Simone Biles has been an advocate for better access to mental health support for athletes. After her experience at the Tokyo Olympics, she has been on hiatus to focus on her mental health. Addressing the question on athletes' mental health right after winning her bronze medal, she added:

"Yeah, well, to bring the topic of mental health, I think it should be talked about a lot, especially with athletes because I know some of us are going through the same things and we are always told to push through it but we're all a little bit older now, we could kind of speak for ourselves."

Simone Biles poses with the bronze medal during the Women's Balance Beam Final medal ceremony on day 11 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The journalist then posed a question to the great gymnast about her own situation, after experiencing the 'twisties' during one of her performances. The journalist asked her how she managed to pull it off after withdrawing from multiple finals. Replying to it, Simone Biles said:

"So, I had to be medically evaluated every day and then I had two sessions with a sports psychologist from team USA, but I've been training beam every day and we just, last minute, decided to go with the dismount which I have probably not done since I was 12 years old because I've always twisted off and done a full in since I was 13 or 14, but on the beam, that work is easy, I've always been able to do it. It's just coming off, we didn't know what we were going to do, or compete in the final. I had to pull out of all the other finals because of that reason"

Simone Biles competes in the Women's Balance Beam Final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Simone Biles experienced the 'twisties'

Colloquially known as the 'twisties' in the world of gymnastics, it's a psychological phenomenon where an athlete temporarily loses control of their muscles mid-movement. This phenomenon can create a mental block in athletes who may be unable to perform the actions that they had previously mastered.

Some may even develop a fear of performing the action, especially if it involves twists and turns as it does in gymnastics.

Hopefully, Biles' experience of this phenomenon at Tokyo would not be repeated and she would be back to her best, both mentally and physically.