Simone Biles entered the Tokyo Olympics with five Olympic medals from the 2016 Rio Games: four golds and one bronze. But she feels that bronze medal, which she won on balance beam, is “so neglected.”
In her Facebook Watch docuseries, Simone vs Herself, highlighting her training leading up to Tokyo, she said people often referred to her as a four-time Olympic gold medalist and completely forget the bronze, which meant just as much to her as gold.
Biles is now a seven-time Olympic medalist, which ties her with Shannon Miller for the most medals won by a U.S. gymnast. And again she won bronze in the women’s balance beam final at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
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And while her bronze medal from Rio is special to her, she said this medal, to her, “means more than all the golds.”
“It means more than all the golds because I’ve pushed through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here,” Biles said. “It was very emotional, and I’m just proud of myself and just all of these girls, as well.”
“I didn’t really care about the outcome,” she added. “I was just happy that I made the routine and that I got to compete one more time.”
She also won a silver medal in Tokyo as part of the team competition, and on beam, she finished behind Chinese gymnasts Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing, while all-around champion Suni Lee finished fifth.
Biles’ last week included pulling out of the team competition, the all-around final and the three other individual event finals because she was battling the “twisties” — a dangerous condition where gymnasts lose their sense of awareness in the air. Too great of a risk to her physical and mental health, Biles opted not to compete before ultimately being cleared for the balance beam final.
And for her, competing again at the Tokyo Games was a victory in itself, and she detailed the challenges she faced to return to competition.
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“The girls saw me in training, my coaches saw me in training; I physically couldn’t do it safely, and it’s because I was getting so lost in the air,” Biles said. “Before team finals, the girls were terrified for me and they’ve never really been scared.”
“At the end of the day, we’re not just athletes or entertainment,” she said. “We’re human too, and we have real emotions, and sometimes they don’t realize that we have things going on behind the scenes that affect us whenever we go out and compete.”
She also took issue with the idea that her withdrawal amounted to “quitting.”
“It wasn’t an easy decision, so it hurts that people are like, ‘Oh she quit’ … because I’ve worked five years for that,” she said. “Why would I quit? I’ve been through so much over the past couple years in the sport. I just don’t quit.”
Biles’ bronze medal on beam also gave her a total of 32 Olympic and world championship medals, tying Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union, as The New York Times noted.
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