After withdrawing from the team finals, Simone Biles also just withdrew from the individual
all-around gymnastics competition at the Olympics to focus on her mental well-being and both
her teammates and fellow celebs have been coming to her defense.
Let’s get into it.
In case you missed it, Simone Biles left midway through the Olympic team finals earlier this
week.
She stepped off the competition floor after getting lost in the air and landing poorly
during her first event of the night, the vault.
Simone eventually returned to the floor to cheer on her teammates and Team USA released
a statement saying that Simone withdrew due to a medical issue.
After Team USA won silver, Simone cited mental health as the reason she removed herself from
the competition in a post-competition interview.
At the time, she said she wasn’t sure if she would compete in the individual all-around
competition later in the week that she was heavily favored to win.
Fellow gold medal winning gymnast and Olympic commentator Nastia Liukin said during coverage
that she spoke with Simone and she was heading back to the gym for practice.
But just hours later, it was revealed that Simone will not be competing in the individual
all-around.
USA Gymnastics released a statement saying “After further medical evaluation, Simone
Biles has withdrawn from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic
Games, in order to focus on her mental health.”
They continued on saying, “We wholeheartedly support Simone's decision and applaud her
bravery in prioritizing her well-being.
Her courage shows, yet again, why she is a role model for so many.”
Simone’s teammate Jade Carey will be replacing her in the individual all-around because she
was the third-ranking American and each team can have two gymnasts compete.
As of now, USA Gymnastics said Simone will be evaluated before deciding if she will participate
in next week's individual events.
Simone qualified for the finals on all four apparatuses, which is something she didn't
even do at the 2016 Olympics.
And since all this news has been unfolding, Simone has been trending on Twitter day after
day.
There were some mixed reactions to her sitting out of the competition with some people saying
Simone let the team down and her spot could’ve gone to another athlete, but thankfully, her
teammates had her back.
Simone’s teammate and best friend Jordan Chiles took to Instagram to show her support
for Simone writing “To my best friend, just thinking about everything we have gone through
together from us getting mad at each other for no reason to laughing at jokes, to bringing
the love of this sport back to me with your help words can’t explain how proud I am
of you.”
Suni Lee also took to Instagram to share these pics with Simone writing “proud of you & everything
you’ve accomplished!
Thank you for being a role model and someone I look up to every single day.
you not only inspire me as a gymnast but as a person as well.”
But it wasn’t just fellow gymnasts coming to Simone’s defense, celebs also took to
social media to show their support for Simone.
Actress Uzo Aduba retweeted a tweet that said, “What #SimoneBiles did by pulling out of
the final for her own mental wellness takes an entirely different kind of strength”
Uzo also added, “Yes.
This is what a champion looks like.
So proud of #SimoneBiles and the entire gymnastics team.
How lucky we are to have you all as our Team USA.”
Andy Cohen simply tweeted saying “We love you @Simone_Biles!”
Today Show host Hoda Kotb wrote “Someone said it best.
@Simone_Biles already won.
She is a class act.
Withdrew from team competition after vault... stayed and cheered on her teammates... got
them chalk for their hands.. encouraged.. hugged them.
She already won.”
And Simone’s former teammate Aly Raisman tweeted saying “Just a friendly reminder:
Olympic athletes are human & they’re doing the best they can.
It’s REALLY hard to peak at the right moment & do the routine of your life under such pressure.
Really hard.”
Simone has taken to social media to show her love for her team for winning Silver medals
and for her bestie Jordan Chiles.
She also shared a post on her story from a fellow gymnast who went into detail about
why we should support Simone’s decision not to compete.
This gymnast Andrea Orris wrote “It makes me so frustrated to see comments about @simonebiles
not being mentally tough enough or quitting on her team.
We are talking about the same girl who was molested by her team “doctor” throughout
her entire childhood and teen years, WON the World All-Around Championship title WHILE
PASSING A KIDNEY STONE, and put her body through an extra year of training through the pandemic.”
Andrea added that Simone “has endured more trauma by the age of 24 than most people will
ever go through in a lifetime.”
She continued on saying that if Simone competed while being in a poor mental state she could
have faced “career-ending or even worse, life-threatening injuries.”
People forget how dangerous gymnastics is and while they make it look easy during the
Olympics we can assure you it most certainly is not.
We’re keeping Simone in our thoughts and we’re glad she’s doing what she needs
to do to prioritize her mental well being.
She’s always gonna be the GOAT!
Mental health is just as important as physical health and we’ll keep saying that until
it sinks in!
We’ll keep you posted on Simone’s decision for next week’s competitions.
But for now, if you want more on Simone Biles, click right over here for another Clevver
News video.
Then hop to the comments and let me know what you think of the reaction to Simone’s decision
to withdraw.
As always, I’m your host Renee Ariel, you can follow me on socials @ReneeAriel and
I’ll see ya next time!