Sabrina faija
07/27/2021 17:06
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/27/2021 17:06
Michael Phelps accumulated 28 Olympic medals, of which 23 were gold
.
However,
when he left the pool after the Rio 2016 Games, he said that he had gone through a deep depression
that had left him on the verge of suicide.
The hole he left five years ago seemed like a perfect space for
Simone Biles
, the American gymnast who amazes the world,
to fill
.
In the Tokyo 2020 preview, the world press predicted a future with a record of gold medals
.
However, in her first team final, the 24-year-old athlete left the competition to prioritize her mental health.
"
Since entering the tapestry, I am alone with my head, dealing with demons in my head
. I must do what is good for me and focus on my mental health and not compromise my health and well-being," she told the press. minutes after hanging the silver medal of a test that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) won and of which he could only participate in one rotation, that of the jump.
His first silver Olympic medal.
In Rio 2016, Biles had four golds and one bronze.
Photo REUTERS / Lindsey Wasson
Biles was the gymnast who closed the first rotation, which the United States shared with the Russians.
He had announced an Amanar with two and a half turns.
However, he seemed to get lost in the air and made a Amanar with a twist and a half, which lowered his score to 13,766, the worst among his team members.
Disappointment took over her face and moments after learning her qualification
, the reigning Olympic champion left the stage with the team doctor.
He returned a few minutes later, with a bandage on one foot.
And then, before the stunned gaze of the world, he confirmed that he was leaving the team event.
Simone Biles' only performance in the final was the jump.
Photo AP Photo / Morry Gash
He did not leave the Ariake Gymnastics Center.
She changed and stayed with her companions.
"They can do this without me,"
she told Grace McCallum, Jordan Chiles and Sunisa Lee.
Without it, however, the United States could not fight the ROC, which closed off a brilliant performance and broke with a decade of American hegemony.
After hanging the silver medal and arriving at the mixed zone, Biles cried.
It was there that he confirmed that
his withdrawal was not due to "a medical problem", as USA Gymnastics had reported, but to his mental health
.
According to the CNN signal, he was not satisfied with his performance in the jump - one of his best devices - and decided to step aside.
"After the performance I did, I didn't want to go to the other events, so I thought about taking a step back. I'm proud of how the girls stepped forward and did what they had to do. I felt like they needed to step back. front without me and that's what they did, "said the five-time world champion, the only one to achieve it three times in a row.
"I owe it to the girls, it has nothing to do with me," he added about the medal hanging from his chest.
"The weight of the world" on the shoulders of Biles
Pressure on athletes is not new.
Yes it is that now they pay attention to their mental health.
Naomi Osaka, to name one of the latest cases, withdrew from Roland Garros and Wimbledon for that reason.
In the preview of the first final he had to face in Japan, Biles had an irregular performance and anticipated that he
felt the pressure to be the star of Tokyo 2020
.
"It wasn't an easy day or my best day, but I got through it. Sometimes, I really feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. I know I forget and it seems like the pressure doesn't affect me, but sometimes it's hard." he wrote on his Instagram account.
His message closed it with laughter but it was a profound issue, which a day later had a full impact on his performance.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles)
In qualifying for this Olympic final, Biles had a hard time getting into the uneven bars, which were never his forte;
in fact, it was eighth and was the last classified.
And also in the beam, where it was sixth.
But even in his best machines he made mistakes: he finished second on the ground, putting his feet outside the practicable area, something that he repeated in jumping, although there it did not cost him first place.
Tom Foster, one of the leaders of the American team, justified the failures by "nervousness."
Biles also recalled that "the Olympic Games are not a game."
But
the chance of matching Soviet Larisa Latynina's record of nine gold medals, or even surpassing it now with the final six played its part in the winner of four golds and one bronze at Rio 2016
.
After what happened in the team final, the Americans plan to have a "mental rest day" on Wednesday, as the individual all-around medals will be put into play a day later, while on subsequent days there will be apparatus finals. .
"I felt quite comfortable coming to the Olympics and I really don't know what happened. We will take it one day at a time," said Biles, who had the courage to confess his inner demons to the world.
Because even though she looks like an alien, she's just a girl with an Olympic dream.
"When it comes to the individual competitions on Thursday, we'll see what I decide," anticipated Simone Biles later, the star of American artistic gymnastics anticipating what could be the most resonant casualty of the Tokyo Olympics.
Between a difficult childhood and the ordeal of abuse in American gymnastics
He was born in Columbus (Ohio) on March 14, 1997 but spent the first years of his life in orphanages
.
Because her biological parents, addicted to drugs and alcohol, could not take care of her or her three siblings, Simone Biles waited until 2003 to have a home, when her maternal grandparents, Ron and Nellie, adopted her along with her sister Adria.
That same year, during a school visit to a Houston gym, little Simone discovered the sport that she would master and that also gave her one of the worst experiences of her life.
In January 2018,
Biles confessed that he was one of the victims of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar
, the former American team doctor who was sentenced to more than 175 years in prison for abusing 250 girls and women for almost 20 years.
"Most know me as a happy, funny, energetic girl. But lately I've been feeling broken and the more I try to shut off that little voice in my head, the louder it screams at me. I'm not afraid to tell my story anymore.
Me too. I am one of the survivors who suffered sexual abuse by Larry Nassar,
"wrote Biles on his Twitter account.
Simone Biles' smile despite not having the performance she had dreamed of in her first final.
Photo REUTERS / Dylan Martinez
With therapy, she coped with that traumatic episode and also worked on her mental health to achieve coexistence between a 24-year-old girl and the best gymnast in the world.
Today, the world learned of those demons that she battles daily and that athletes no longer keep hidden in a room.
"
I don't trust myself that much anymore
. Maybe it's getting older. But I didn't want to go out and do something stupid and get injured.
I think the fact that a lot of athletes talk has been a great help
. This is so great, they are the Olympic Games. At the end of the day, we do not want to be taken out of there on a stretcher, "he summed up after the first final.
Others await her and she will surely have a revenge.
Look also
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, day 5: minute by minute, live
