The shadow of trauma and sexual assault could not stop her, and Biles, who returned to the Olympics, was extremely strong

The Paper

2024-08-02 09:08Posted on the official account of Shanghai The Paper

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At the 01 Paris Olympics, United States women's gymnastics legend Biles won gold medals in the women's team final and all-around final, standing at the top of the Olympic Games again after 8 years.

02 Biles unexpectedly withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health and physical issues, after which she considered retiring, but eventually chose to return to competition.

03 Byers has experienced psychological problems over the past few years due to the impact of the sexual assault incident, but she has overcome these difficulties strongly.

04 Biles, who has overcome her trauma and dark past, is now stronger than ever, and she shows a healthier mindset on the court.

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In the world of women's gymnastics, as long as Biles is on the field, her name will not be absent from the list of favourites to win gold.

At the Paris Olympics, the legend of United States and global gymnastics made his debut again.

In the women's team final on July 30, Biles led the United States team to gold medal with a high score of 171.296 with an outstanding performance.

On August 1, local time, in the women's individual all-around final, Biles scored the highest score in the three events of vault, balance beam and floor exercise, and finally won the championship with 59.131 points, more than 1 point ahead of the runner-up, and stood on the top of the Olympics in the all-around event again after 8 years. Next, Biles, who already holds two gold medals, will continue to compete for gold in multiple individual events.

In the past, the famous athlete, known as the "Queen of Gymnastics", has experienced a lot: childhood tribulations, the shadow of sexual assault, physical and psychological problems encountered at the Tokyo Olympics......

But none of this knocked her out. In the Paris Olympics, she stood on the stage again, letting the world see the self who did not give up.

Tokyo was in the doldrums, and she didn't leave

As the leading figure in women's gymnastics in the United States, Biles was highly anticipated at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, when she was seen as the favourite to win gold with four Olympic gold medals and 19 world gold medals.

However, it was also in Tokyo that the "Queen of Gymnastics" unexpectedly suffered Waterloo.

At that time, in the first round of the women's gymnastics team finals, Biles made a mistake on the first round of vaulting, and then left the competition field with the team doctor and did not appear again.

Subsequently, Biles announced that she had withdrawn from the women's team final due to mental health issues, and then withdrew from the all-around and individual events one after another, and finally won only one bronze medal in the balance beam event.

In the final of the women's gymnastics team at the Tokyo Olympics, Biles retired after leaving the court after a vault mistake

What happened to Biles, who rules women's gymnastics? The legend's sudden collapse immediately became the biggest topic of discussion that shocked the entire gymnastics world, and Biles himself attributed the problem to psychological reasons.

"I felt anxious and I didn't feel fun doing the movements, and I was hoping that I could really fight for myself at this Olympics, but I came here and felt like I was fighting for someone else."

In addition to her psychological problems, she also appears to be suffering from physical problems, which Biles herself calls a kind of "vertigo" or loss of "air consciousness."

"It's a crazy feeling [in the air] to be unable to tell the difference between up and down, not being able to control your body." Fearing that such a situation would cause her to seriously injure herself, she no longer dared to perform the movements that she had practiced countless times.

Byrr confessed that she had planned to retire after the Tokyo Olympics, and even broke down in tears when she learned that the Tokyo Olympics had been postponed for a year.

Was the unexpected withdrawal at the Tokyo Olympics the curtain call for the gymnastics legend? At the time, in many people's speculation, this seemed to be the end of the story.

Overcome emotional issues and return to the Olympics

Just when people lamented that Biles's legendary career had not come to a perfect end, Biles himself gave the opposite answer.

In the arena of public opinion, many of her supporters continued to encourage her, and Biles also dismissed the idea of saying goodbye to professional gymnastics completely, but even if she didn't say goodbye, she still chose to give herself a vacation.

The "treatment" she arranged for herself included taking a break from professional sports and taking time to receive help from professionals. For Biles, leaving the training room and the arena and spending a lot of time enjoying the daily life of "ordinary people" is also a very rare experience in his previous life.

In April last year, Biles announced that he was marrying Jonathan Owens, a player in the United States Professional Football League, · Owens, and entered a new phase of his life.

In her own words, when life has changed, her mental state is finally no longer as tense as it used to be, "I was [once] married to gymnastics, and now it's just a part of my daily life." ”

After two years of retirement, Biles, who has rediscovered himself, ushered in a comeback at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, winning four gold medals and one silver medal in one fell swoop, announcing his strong comeback.

With this time, her total number of Olympic and World Championship medals has reached 37, and she has once again made new history in the world of gymnastics. The domineering Biles has returned to the eyes of the world.

Today, Biles has a healthier mindset when it comes to competitive sports: "I wake up every morning and start training and perform for myself, and no one forces me to do it. ”

She is also not in the world of accidents, whether she will continue to criticize and question herself because of the unexpected withdrawal three years ago, "Even if I do it again, what can I do? I've been facing these (public pressures) for three years now. ”

Those dark pasts can't stop her

Although she has created more brilliance on the field than anyone else can match, Biles's growth story has not been as good as her achievements. As a child, as the third of four siblings in the family, she never met her biological father, the "addict" who abandoned his family.

Her biological mother was also addicted to drugs and alcohol, and she had to be placed in "foster care" because of this, and at the age of 6, she and her sister were officially adopted by her grandparents. For gymnastics, it was too late to start training at the age of 6, but when she got on stage, she finally showed her talent.

Biles, who is fully committed to gymnastics, has a very monotonous and even boring life, and getting better and better results brings more and more pressure.

"My goal wasn't to beat those records, but once the journalist wrote them, it became my 'mission'. Sometimes you can't choose your goals because there are so many people watching you. Even if I break the Olympic record, there will only be more goals ahead. She said so.

In such a high-pressure environment, sexual assault incidents have brought indelible pain.

In 2016, the United States media exposed widespread sexual assault in United States gymnastics, and the national team and even Olympians were not spared. After the scandal came to light, those responsible were investigated and sentenced, and the top management of the management body was replaced, but the damage caused to the athletes still existed.

Biles testified in a sexual assault case

These painful experiences are undoubtedly an important cause of Biles's psychological problems, "When I work hard for my dream of the Tokyo Olympics, I will have to go back to the training place where I was sexually assaulted. Sometimes training was going on and those experiences popped up and I had to leave the gym for a while. ”

In the course of the long investigation, Biles did not shy away, but repeatedly confronted the past in public forums such as hearings, pointing out the sins committed by those demons, and criticizing the long-term absence and connivance of the administrators. The courage of the gymnastics star has also encouraged many victims to come forward and identify the perpetrators and tell their painful memories.

Overcoming the pain and the dark past, Biles is stronger than ever.

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