Tokyo 2021: Simone Biles, queen of gymnastics, in psychological difficulty
American gymnast Simone Biles performs her floor program during qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Loic VENANCE AFP
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
4 min
Will we see Simone Biles again at the Tokyo Olympics?
A few hours after a sometimes staggering evening at the end of which Simone Biles gave up her test and mentioned her psychological difficulties, the gymnast will not be in the all-around competition on Thursday July 29.
Like her, in the past, many athletes have had to deal with psychological difficulties during their careers.
But today, the subject is no longer taboo.
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The American officially waived this Wednesday, July 28 the general competition scheduled for Thursday.
With five medals including four gold won in Rio in 2016, and achieving extraordinary figures, Simone Biles is considered the greatest gymnast of all time.
"
After a medical evaluation, Simone Biles withdrew from the all-around final in order to focus on her mental health,
" the federation said in a statement that fell Tuesday afternoon.
Face your demons
And the American Federation had warned that the participation of the gymnastics superstar would be evaluated "
daily
" for all the events in which the four-time Olympic champion is registered: beam and vault, Sunday, floor Monday and uneven bars Tuesday.
Tuesday evening, the American had cracked in the all-around team competition and explained "
facing her demons
" while she was yet aiming for six Olympic titles in Japan. "
As soon as I step on the mat it's just me and my head
...
face my demons
(...)
I have to do what's right for me and focus on my sanity and not compromise my health and well-being,
”she said with tears in her eyes. “
I don't have as much self-confidence as before
(...)
I feel like I don't have as much pleasure as before
(...)
I have to do what is right for me and focus on my sanity
Added the one who had taken two sabbaticals after Rio 2016. Returning to the international scene at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, she won six medals, four of which were gold, thus setting a record of four victories in the individual all-around.
Athletes are now revealing their inner ailments
High-level athletes have long kept their torments to themselves, before revealing them once their career is over but, like the tennis player Naomi Osaka and, since Tuesday in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics, the superstar of the gymnastics, they no longer hesitate to reveal their inner torments.
Michael Phelps, considered a legend of swimming, and more broadly of the sport, with 28 Olympic medals, including 23 in gold, revealed in 2018, two years after his retirement from the pools, that he had suffered during his career from depression , drowned his anxieties in alcohol or even thought about suicide.
Others such as British cyclist Mark Cavendish and Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe have also confessed to having suffered from depression or anxiety during their careers.
Winner of the 1997 Tour de France, Jan Ullrich was one of the most talented riders of his generation before falling for doping and then sinking into depression, going from psychiatric clinics to drug rehab.
A battered childhood
At the age of 6, Simone Biles and her younger sister Adria were adopted by their maternal grandparents. Indeed, the parents - mother and father - were unable to take care of their four children, due to an addiction to drugs and alcohol. In January 2018, Simone Biles revealed that she had been sexually abused by Larry Nassar. The former doctor of the national gymnastics team was sentenced in December 2017 to sixty years in prison.
“
These days I think questions about mental health in sport are more common.
It's not like you can put everything aside anymore, you also have to focus on yourself, because at the end of the day we are also human, we have to protect our mind and body, rather than doing this. that the world expects from us,
”recalled Simone Biles.
Before the Games, she said she "
felt like
she was
carrying the weight of the world on
(her)
shoulders
".
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2020 Olympics
United States