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Olympic fever has us well and truly gripped, and there are few athletes’ performances at this year’s Paris Games more hotly anticipated than US gymnast Simone Biles.
The star Olympian recently scooped up another gold medal and has her sights set on more as she continues to compete. In order to perform at her best, Simone has revealed the thing she does on the day of competing to prepare her for the challenge ahead – therapy.
According to CNN, the 27-year-old told reporters after her gold-winning performance that, “I started off with therapy this morning so that was super exciting. And then I told [my therapist] I was feeling calm and ready.”
Simone has been open about her mental health in recent years, speaking in the press and on podcasts about her experiences. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Simone made the decision to pull out due to a condition known as the ‘twisties’ and was widely praised for putting her health first.
A BBC explainer on the subject details that, “In gymnastics [the twisties] can cause a person to lose their sense of space and dimension as they’re in the air, causing them to lose control of their body and do extra twists or flips that they hadn’t intended. In the worst cases, they can find themselves suddenly unable to land safely.
“The twisties can happen to a gymnast even if they’ve done the same manoeuvre for years without problems.”
Luckily, Simone appears not to be affected the same way in Paris and is competing at the top of her game. We can’t wait to see what she does next!
