Simone Biles has described the Tokyo Olympics as a point when years of pressure and personal strain met an immediate safety crisis: she lost her sense of where she was in the air and withdrew rather than risk a dangerous landing. Her later reflections put that decision in a wider story of trauma, recovery and a return to competition—not a single incident with a simple explanation.
What happened to Simone Biles in Tokyo?
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were held in 2021. Biles arrived after winning four gold medals and one bronze at Rio 2016, with expectations of another dominant Games. She qualified for all six possible finals in Tokyo, according to NBC Olympics.
After qualification, Biles said the “twisties” first appeared during floor practice. The term describes a loss of spatial orientation while performing a twisting skill: a gymnast may no longer reliably sense where their body is in the air. Biles said she felt lost and could not safely execute the skills she had planned.
She competed in the opening rotation of the team final, then withdrew from the rest of that competition and the all-around. She also withdrew from several apparatus finals. After being assessed by doctors and a sports psychologist, she determined she could not safely perform on the uneven bars. She later returned for the balance beam final, using a less difficult dismount, and won bronze. The sequence is documented in NBC Olympics’ account of her Tokyo experience.
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Why did Biles withdraw?
The immediate reason was safety: she did not trust her ability to orient herself and land safely. Biles did not frame the decision as giving up. After her beam return, she told NBC’s Mike Tirico: “Put your mental health first. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the biggest stage, that’s more important than any other medal you could win.”
Her later account also places Tokyo within a longer history of pressure and trauma. In a New York magazine interview reported by The Washington Post, she discussed the accumulated demands of being expected to win and the resurfacing of Larry Nassar’s abuse. The Post also reported that an aunt died during the Tokyo competition. These details help explain the wider context she described; they do not establish one simple cause for the twisties or for her decision to withdraw.
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Biles has reflected on what she learned from the experience: “I learned a lot about myself — courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself,” she told the New York magazine interview cited by the Post. She also said of Nassar, “I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me.” The remark referred to her determination not to let the abuse define her relationship with gymnastics.
How did Biles respond after Tokyo?
Biles took time away from competition to focus on healing and mental health, and has described therapy as part of her ongoing work. In an NBC Olympics retrospective, she recalled, “I never thought I’d be on a world stage competing again.” Her return was a milestone, not evidence that mental-health challenges had disappeared.
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Returning to competition
She came back to the sport and won four gold medals at the 2023 World Championships, as BBC Sport reported. She then competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics. NBC Olympics’ Paris retrospective counted 11 Olympic medals for Biles after those Games.
Putting the comeback in perspective
Medals and a return to the Olympic stage show that Biles competed again at the highest level; they do not prove that the pressures or mental-health challenges that shaped her earlier experience are permanently resolved. Her own reflections make room for both achievement and the need to set limits.
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Where to watch Biles’s story
The four-part Netflix documentary series Simone Biles Rising follows her journey from Tokyo to Paris and offers a screen-based account of that period. The series is described by Netflix Tudum; availability may vary by location.
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