Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2021 — amongst equally-renowned elite athletes Naomi Osaka, Tom Brady or Allyson Felix — the two-time American Olympian Simone Biles has, without a doubt, impacted the newer and older generations of Olympians.
Not only for her performance as one of the greatest, most decorated gymnast in history, but also for her inspirational take on mental health in addition to calling out the system under which her and multiple other athletes were victims of sexual assault.
While Biles had already gathered several gold, silver and bronze medals for her incredible performances in World Championships, she started gaining more visibility internationally after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games during which she set the record for the most golden medals won by a female gymnast in a single Games. Naturally, this triumph came with an international uproar which acknowledged the Olympic medalist with numerous titles such as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year 2016 or Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation. However, soon after this succession of achievements, Biles decided to prioritize her physical well-being by taking a sabbatical year in 2017.
In January 2018, shortly before Biles was added back to the US National Team in March the same year, the latter tweeted a statement in which she reported, along with over 160 women, that USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar had been sexually assaulting young gymnasts in his care, including herself. Last September, she testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee and proceeded to call out the USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee which she rightfully blamed for enabling and perpetuating Nassar’s abuse. Indeed, Biles says, during her testimony about the abuse: “Rhonda Faehn, the former head of USA Gymnastics women’s program, was told by my friend and teammate Maggie Nichols that she suspected that I too was a victim”.
Prior to that, in 2017, Biles had publicly called out her former teammate Gabrielle Douglas as she had written out a victim-shaming response to Alexandra Raisman’s — also an American gymnast — tweet accusing Nassar of sexual assault, saying that “(...) it is our responsibility as women to dress modestly and be classy. dressing in a provocative/sexual way entices the wrong crowd.". To which Biles responded: “Shocks me that I'm seeing this [...] as your teammate, I expected more from you and to support her.”. Later on, the Olympian went on about the hypocrisy of victim-blaming women for their choice of attire rather than holding men accountable for their actions: “You teach girls to cover up, rather than guys to not touch girls? They blame it on clothes, what the girls wear, she asked for it. Sorry – nobody asked for it.”.
This year, during the Tokyo Summer Olympics, all eyes were on Biles as the US — and the World — built up high expectations for the Olympian’s performance at the Games, which put pressure on her as she was “[feeling] the weight of the world on [her] shoulders”. However, Biles sparked the international media’s attention as she proceeded to step away from the team all-around competition and later withdrew from the finals of the individual all-around competition in addition to the vault, uneven bars and floor finals, leaving only the beam final for which she won the bronze medal. Indeed, the Olympian suffered both mentally and physically – she developed the twisties – and decided to prioritize her mental-health.
Biles later called her bronze medal the most meaningful one by far, for the message behind it, meaning putting mental-health first and having the courage to withdraw from the world’s biggest sporting event to focus on yourself which is a powerful statement to young athletes around the world, letting them know that it is okay to stand up for themselves – even under what may seem like inevitable circumstances – which sparked up a long-awaited conversation about mental-health in sports.
The record-breaking tennis player, Serena Williams, wrote about Biles on Time’s 100 most influential people of 2021: “By living her truth so loudly and by championing mental health, she is setting new standards of beauty, strength and resilience, breaking down today’s image-obsessed stereotypes and encouraging others to do the same.”
For now, Simone Biles will be enjoying a well-deserved rest. And although she’s keeping the door open for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Olympian – who’s openly talking about therapy – will be focusing on her mental and physical health for the time being.
Article by Yazida-Essia Sghaier
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