Gymnastics · 2020 · Tokyo, Japan
Putting Health Before a Sixth Gold
Favoured to win as many as four golds at a pandemic-delayed Olympics, the sport's most decorated gymnast withdraws mid-competition rather than risk serious injury, and turns a private crisis into a very public case for athlete mental health.
USA silver (Biles withdrew)
Team result
Bronze, balance beam
Individual return
"The twisties"
Condition cited
Simone Biles arrived at the Tokyo Olympics, delayed a year to 2021 by the Covid-19 pandemic, as the heavy favourite in the all-around and most individual finals. During the team final on 27 July 2021, she performed a vault with far less twist than planned and stumbled badly on the landing, later explaining she had lost track of her body's position in the air mid-skill, a phenomenon gymnasts call 'the twisties'.
She withdrew from the rest of the team final and then from the individual all-around and several event finals, judging correctly that continuing to compete while disoriented in the air risked a severe injury. Her teammates, nicknamed the 'Fighting Four' in her absence, won team silver behind the Russian Olympic Committee.
Biles returned before the Games ended to compete in the balance beam final, an apparatus less affected by the twisties, and won bronze with a simplified dismount. Her decision to prioritise her own safety over a probable gold medal haul, explained candidly to the press rather than hidden, became one of the most significant moments in modern sport for normalising conversations about athlete mental health.
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