Simone Biles will be missing from the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony for a valid reason.
“The first [gymnastics] competition is Sunday, which is women’s qualifier and of course she needs to rest up before that competition,” Nellie Biles told NBC’s Hoda Kotb on Friday, July 26. “She is feeling really good. I spoke to her this morning and she’s doing great.”
Nellie added that her daughter is in “a really good space” and is grateful to have the support of her family in Paris for the next two weeks.
“She is happy that we are here,” Nellie revealed. “Seventeen of us are here to cheer her on.”
The gymnast, 27, has a deep history with the Olympics. She made her breakthrough at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, winning four gold medals and one bronze medal. Biles returned to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, but she ultimately withdrew from multiple events after suffering from the “twisties,” which caused her to become disoriented while in the air. Still, she won one silver and one bronze medal at the time.
Biles officially made the U.S. gymnastics team for the Paris Olympics in June, qualifying for a spot on the five-woman roster. Amid the accomplishment, she reflected on her ups and downs in recent years.
U.S. Artistic Gymnasts will not be part of the Opening Ceremony as they prepare for the beginning of their Olympic Competition tomorrow & Sunday. Go Team USA! pic.twitter.com/gfyN3VtMab
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 26, 2024
“This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give,” she told reporters at a June press conference, referring to herself and teammates Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and newcomer Hezly Rivera.
“I know we’re stronger than what we showed in Tokyo, so I think it has to be for us because it can’t be for anybody else — that’s not why we do it,” she continued. “We do it for ourselves and the love for the sport and the love for representing the U.S. We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to do our best.”
Biles noted that she remained unbothered by haters who labeled her a “quitter” in the aftermath of her 2021 mental health struggles.
“They’ll still say like, ‘Oh, my gosh, are you going to quit again, are you going to quit again?’ And if I did, what are you going to do about it? Tweet me some more?” she said. “Like, I’ve already dealt with it for three years. But yeah, they want to see us fail.”
Biles emphasized the scrutiny that she and fellow athletes endure in the spotlight.
“They want to see the rise to success, and then as soon as you get it and do kind of take that and run with it and you start reigning for a really long time, they want to see the downfall,” she explained. “[It] is really unfortunate because sports hasn’t seen athletes like we’ve seen before. So you really have to give them their flowers in the sport because once they’re gone you’re going to miss them.”
Source usmagazine.com
