4-Time Gold Medalist Simone Biles Discusses Mental Health and Future in Gymnastics

Simone Biles, who is largely regarded as one of the best gymnastics of all time, isn’t tired of the sport just yet…

The 25-year-old Olympian was honored as one of USA Today‘s Women of the Year and conducted an interview in which she discussed what the future looks like. Opening up about her mental health and the pressure of professional athleticism, Biles revealed she still has a few tricks up her sleeve. 

She began adding context to her current-day self, explaining that her gymnast career has been a long and complicated journey. The gold medalist noted that every time she felt as if she had hit the prime of her career, she continued pushing herself and would go on to do greater things. 

“Technically, if you would ask anybody in the U.S. that looks at an American gymnast, I’m probably already aged out, but I really feel like leading up to Tokyo, I was hitting my prime,” Biles said. “Truly, I thought in 2016, at 19 years old, I had peaked. And whenever I came back to the sport, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get even better than I was because somebody told me that was the best I was going to get.’ “

So, what does this mean for the gymnast’s future career? Biles admitted that she would like to push the limits and see how far she can progress. 

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The 25-year-old explained, “You just have to push out those negative views and just keep pushing. I want to see how much I’m capable of, how talented I can be. And that’s why I came back, just to not have any regrets if I look back in 10 years. So now I can really say I have no regrets, but maybe I might push it a little bit more to see.”

Simone Biles’ honest conversation about mental health encourages others to do the same

Biles’ strength extends beyond her ability to land flips on balance beams as well. As the world watched her take time for herself during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, mental health became a major topic of discussion. More specifically, the athlete’s openness about her struggles was a step in the direction of making mental health discussion less taboo. 

“Pushing mental health to the forefront was a huge thing. I honestly didn’t realize in that moment the impact that it would have,” she shared during an interview. Biles went on to detail that since her candidness about her mental health, more and more people have approached her and relayed that they sought out counseling because of her promotion of mental health awareness. 

“Now with mental health being a huge topic that we talk about basically on the daily now, they’re always telling me, ‘Thank you so much. You’ve done so much for me and my family, my friends. Now I’m going to go get help,’ ” she commented. “So it really does mean a lot to me that a lot of people are now trying to get the help that they not only deserve but that they need.”