“I should have left long before Tokyo.” Thus speaks to the “New York Magazine”, Simone Biles, the icon of American gymnastics whose mental health problems led her to give up several Olympic Games competitions this summer, collapsing under the pressure. “If you look at everything I’ve been through in the last seven years, I should never have been in another Olympic team,” said the 24-year-old American, capable of winning seven Olympic medals and twenty-five World Championships in her career. Considered the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles revealed in January 2018 that she was one of the victims of former American women’s team doctor Larry Nassar, sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault committed over two decades out of more than 250. athletes, most of them minors. “When Nassar ended up in the media, it was too much – added Biles – But I wouldn’t have allowed him to take something I had worked for since I was 6 years old. I wouldn’t let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed beyond what I could, for as long as my mind and body allowed me. ‘
In Tokyo, the American was supposed to be the Olympic superstar but, instead of raiding medals, she suddenly froze, victim of “twisties”, a potentially dangerous phenomenon that causes gymnasts to lose their sense of direction when they are in the air. In the end he participated in only one race, winning the bronze on the beam. «Let’s say that up to 30 years old one sees perfectly, then one morning you wake up and see nothing. But people tell you to keep doing your job as if you still have sight … How should I continue? ‘ Biles, who previously stated that his anxiety problems predate Tokyo, hopes he can help other people with his own problems, which won’t be easily solved. «It will probably be something I will work on for 20 years – concluded Biles – I just want a doctor to tell me when I will be healed. Like when you have an operation and they put you back. Why can’t anyone tell me that it will be over in six months? ‘