Simone Biles will be back in the running for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
It was announced on Monday that the 24-year-old star athlete plans to compete in the balance beam final on Tuesday alongside Suni Lee who has won a gold, silver and bronze medal already.
“We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow – Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!” USA Gymnastics tweeted early Monday.
Simone withdrew from the individual and team all-around competition in an effort to focus on her mental health. The gymnast on Friday took to Instagram to share with her millions of fans what it’s like for her to suffer with a condition called “twisties” which causes her mind and body to not be in sync, leading to a potentially dangerous situation, especially for a gymnast.
The Olympian also reiterated the fact that she did not quit because of having a bad performance on the vault during the team finals on Tuesday, where she had the lowest score of her career at 13.766.
“I’ve had plenty of bad performances throughout my career and finished the competition. I simply got so lost my safety was at risk as well as a team medal,” she wrote.
“For anyone saying I quit. I didn’t quit, my mind and body are simply not in sync. As you can see [in the video]. I don’t think you realize how hard this is on hard/competition surface,” she captioned alongside a video of her falling on the dismount during practice. “Sometimes I can’t even fathom twisting. I seriously cannot comprehend how to twist. Strangest and weirdest thing as well as feeling,” she added.
Simone says that she’s experienced the “twisties” in the past, but it usually shows up only during floor and vault routines and doesn’t last more than 2 weeks. But during the Tokyo Olympics it has also “transferred to the bars and beam” right after the preliminary competition.
“By that time no an alternate was not allowed to be placed in my position for all your ‘know it alls.’ we have four on a team for a reason. I chose to not continue team competition in jeopardizing losing a medal (of any color) for the girls/us. Also, for my own safety and health,” Simone explained.
Simone is the first woman since 1992 to advance to the final in all six possible Olympic events. She was set to compete in the team final, the individual all-around final, and in the vault, uneven bars, and floor event finals.
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