Simone Biles pulls out of individual final

“After the performance I did, I just didn’t want to go on,” she said.

“I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now … we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.”

Simone Biles stumbles upon landing in the women’s team final on Tuesday night.Credit:Getty Images

Biles had indicated after her qualifying round that she felt burdened by the enormous expectations on her.

“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” she said on social media. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard.”

After withdrawing from the teams event on Tuesday night, she said: “I don’t trust myself as much anymore … maybe it’s getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world. ​

“We’re not just athletes, we’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. ​

“I didn’t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. ​

“I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. ​

“It’s so big, it’s the Olympic Games, at the end of the day we don’t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher.

“You have to be there 100 per cent or 120 per cent or you’re going to hurt yourself.”

USA Gymnastics had given no indication whether Biles would compete in Wednesday night’s all-around final to defend her Olympic title won in Rio five years ago, or the individual apparatus events for which she had qualified. Biles herself said she would take it “a day at a time”.

“I’m just trying to gear up for the next test,” she said. “I tried to go out there for the team and they stepped up to the plate.”

Biles’ withdrawal from the teams competition followed the third-round exit of Naomi Osaka, the Japanese athlete chosen to light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony, from the tennis competition.

Earlier this year, Osaka intensified the discussion around athletes and mental health when she withdrew from the French Open and skipped Wimbledon as well after her refusal to endure what she called the stress of mandatory news conferences at tennis events, especially at grand slam tournaments.

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Osaka revealed that she had struggled with depression since 2018, and said she was uncomfortable in the sometimes adversarial public setting of news conferences. She quit the tournament after organisers threatened to disqualify her if she did not meet her press obligations.

As the teams were warming up at the gymnastics on Tuesday night, Biles was seen smiling and chatting to her teammates and rival competitors. She performed several practice vaults without mishap before attempting the competitive vault â€" in which she apparently changed her intended manoeuvre mid-flight.

She said she had told her teammates “you guys can do this without me” after her withdrawal from competition.

The teams competition was won by the Russian Olympic Committee with the US finishing second and Great Britain third.

The biggest drama, however, did not play out on the apparatus. It surrounded the health of Biles and whether we will see her perform again.

With AP, Reuters and The New York Times

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Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au

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