The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was a significant highlight of this summer, after the quadrennial event had been postponed for a year. Fans around the world were excited to see their favorite athletes/teams in action, and get back into a familiar routine of watching events that were reminiscent of pre-COVID times.
Now, the Olympics have always had their fair share of star athletes representing each sport- with Simone Biles definitely being one of them. With the renowned American gymnast being the bearer of seven Olympic gold medals, 24-year-old Simone was going into Tokyo 2020 with a lot of expectations/performances to uphold. The gymnast herself even mentioned on her Instagram how it feels like she has “ the weight of the world on [her] shoulders at times.” After all, it was assumed by most that she would dominate the competition, like she had for the last eight years in the gymnastics world.
So it came as a global shock when Simone withdrew from the Olympic women’s gymnastics team final and eventually, the all-around competition.
Viewers were dismayed as to why the world’s number one gymnast had withdrawn from a competition that she would have otherwise had in the bag. But Simone was concerned with something far more important than any medal: her own mental health.
Simone had been struggling with an infamous mental block called the ‘twisties’- a sensation where gymnasts lose their sense of control while they are flipping in the air. It is often triggered by fear or pressure, and lasts an indefinite amount of time. “When you have the twisties, you suddenly have no idea where you are or what your body is doing,” says former gymnast Karen Braun. “Any gymnast at any point can get the twisties… the worst part is that it is sudden and unexplainable.”
(image to the right: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
So for high-level gymnasts like Simone, whose gymnastics routines are made up of advanced moves that could cause detrimental injuries if performed wrong, this would make it severely dangerous for her to compete. Hence why after a hard deliberation, she chose to drop out of the competition.
Fortunately, many understood and respected her difficult decision, and showered Simone in support across social media. But there were still some that could not seem to grasp why she needed to withdraw. These critics attacked her for being “weak”, and deemed her a “quitter” for dropping out for a reason that was not a visible injury in their eyes. And while some of this anger spawned from merely the outrage of a world-class athlete for seemingly “quitting on her team”, a lot of these negative reactions can also be traced back to the stigma that has long existed around mental health.
The acceptance of mental health and illnesses have only recently started being normalized in the last few decades. Early beliefs about the causes of mental illness (such as demonic possession, ‘laziness’, ‘craziness’, or simply incompetence) have produced lasting impressions of mistrust and prejudice that can still be seen today. However, as mindsets progressed and people became more willing to talk about previously “taboo” subjects, mental health slowly gained exposure. More people started opening up about their issues.
In fact, in 2021, SAMHSA (the American Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) reported that over 47 million Americans have dealt with some form of mental health issue this year. That is a significant number of people (19% of the American population) whose struggles have a history of being pushed aside and/or even targeted for. And that’s only in the US- everyone, everywhere has tackled with their own mental health at one point or another. It does not have to be a mental illness, like anxiety, depression, disorders etc: the simple wellbeing of someone’s mind and thoughts plays a huge role in a person’s overall health.
Yet still, some people refuse to see mental health as being equally important to its counterpart, physical health. And this mentality is surprisingly common in the sports world, despite the fact that “35% of elite athletes suffer from a mental health crisis which may manifest as stress, eating disorders, burnout, or depression and anxiety,” according to Athletes for Hope. Professional athletes also often have a tendency towards perfectionism, which means they might categorize their own mental struggles as being “imperfect” or “weak”, and therefore try to reject them- something that rarely leads to a pleasant result. Once again, some of this thinking is likely also an after-effect of the former ‘taboo’ label on mental health.
So of course, people are no strangers to the mental health stigma that has perpetuated the media for a long time. So why did the withdrawal of Simone draw so many prying eyes and questions?
"She's human, and I think sometimes people forget that, and Simone, just like everyone else, is doing the best that she can," says fellow US gymnast, Aly Raisman. And it’s true- whether it be celebrities, athletes, or other famous figures, they can seem larger than life at times; and people tend to forget that there is an actual person behind those monumental achievements.
She's human, and I think sometimes people forget that..." (Aly Raisman)
And for many avid fans of the American gymnastics team, they grew to take the last nine years of glory (and Simone’s talent) for granted: making Simone’s withdrawal even harder to digest. But it was a necessary wake-up call for realizing that mental/internal struggles can affect anyone- even the world’s best athletes. Prioritizing mental health is so important for one’s own well-being, and Simone Biles showed just that in her decision to withdraw from the 2020 Olympics.
"Put mental health first, because if you don't, then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to," says Simone. "So it's OK sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself, because it shows how strong of a competitor that you really are, rather than just battling through it."
" Put mental health first, because if you don't, then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to." (Simone Biles)