By: Chloe Cheng
Two years ago, American Gymnast Simone Biles said goodbye temporarily to gymnastics due to mental health issues. After around 732 days, in August of 2023, she returned, better than ever, to professional competition.
26-year-old Simone Biles departed from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in hopes to work on her mental health. “I’m still struggling with some things,” Biles said after the event. “It just sucks when you are fighting with your own head.” With that, the world was left to wonder whether or not she would return.
In these two years, Simone focused on stabilizing her mental state by going to therapy, healing slowly but surely, in hopes of returning to the exercise where she feels most like herself – gymnastics.
In June of 2023, she finally decided to compete in the U.S. Classics – an annual summer gymnastics meet for elite artistic gymnasts of the United States. Between planning her wedding with Jonathan Owens, she began practicing and training for the upcoming meet.
Her results were incredible. It was as if she had never taken a break: she reached an overall score of 59.100, 5 points more than the runner-up. With her little training, these scores prove how talented and hard-working she was before her break, not lacking in skill and performance after two years.
"I feel really good about where I am right now, mentally and physically," Biles said. "I still think there are some things to work on in my routines, but for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well. I'm very shocked. Surprised."
Simone’s passion for gymnastics remains the same despite the hardships she faced. She explained during the Tokyo Olympics how she felt she needed to focus on herself before moving forward. The world trusts her love for gymnastics will drive her to overcome any obstacles, and fans all support and hope to see her shine once again for the 2024 Paris Olympics. When the time comes, she wishes to reclaim her excellence in the past and continue as the Olympics gold medalist, this time pushing through the entire competition stronger than ever.