Simone Biles explains her decision to withdraw from Tokyo Olympics

Below are highlights from Simone Biles’ press conference Tuesday after she withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics.

On why she withdrew from the competition after vault in the first rotation, and how her team performed in the final without her on the next three apparatus:

“After the performance that I did (on vault), I thought it was better if I took a step back and let these girls go out there and do the job, and they did just that. They get a gold medal from me in fighting because they never gave up. They showed the world what they’re capable of.”

On why she performed an unplanned one-and-a-half twisting Yurchenko versus a planned two-and-a-half twisting Yurchenko:

“I did not choose to do a one-and-a-half (laughs). I tried to do a two-and-a-half, and that just was not clicking. It’s very uncharacteristic of me, and it just sucks that it happened here at the Olympic Games. With the year that it’s been, I’m really not surprised how it played out.”

On what led to her decision to withdraw from the team final after vault, and her team’s subsequent performance:

“In the back gym, coming in today, it was like fighting all those demons, ‘I have to put my pride aside, I have to do it for the team’. At the end of the day, I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health, and not jeopardize my health and well-being.

“That’s why I decided to kind of take a step back and let them do their work, and they did it. They’re Olympic silver medalists, so it’s something they should be very proud of, because they did it without me. I was there in spirit, and they did amazing.”

On her mental state:

“I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to. I don’t know if it’s age. I’m a little bit more nervous when I do gymnastics. I feel like I’m also not having as much fun, and I know that this Olympic Games, I wanted it to be for myself (crying).

“I was still doing it for other people, so it hurts my heart that doing what I love has been kind of taken away from me to please other people.”

On how support has affected her mental state:

“Therapy has helped a lot, as well as medicine. That’s all been going really well, but whenever you get in a high-stress situation, you kind of freak out.

“You don’t really know how to handle all these emotions, especially at the Olympic Games. Yes, we have tons of resources available to us, but I’m kind of one to tough it out until the last minute.

“Obviously it didn’t work that way (in the team final), so moving forward we’ll go back to the tactics that have always worked.”

On the pressure she feels at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020:

“I felt pretty comfortable coming into the Olympic Games. I don’t really know what happened, but going through each of the days and the training, it just felt a little bit tougher.

“Tonight could have gone a little bit better because warm-up wasn’t that bad. I’m still struggling with some things, but it wasn’t too bad, but once I got out here, it was just like, ‘You know what? I’m going to take a back seat (and let) these goes go out there and do their thing’, and they did it.

On whether she will compete in Thursday’s individual all-around final, for which she qualified in first place:

“We’re going to take it a day at a time. We have a little bit of a break for training, so that will be really nice to have a mental rest day.

“Gymnastics isn’t everything at the end of the day. There’s still more to life than gymnastics so I’m not too, too worried about what happened. So I’m just trying to gear up for the next couple of days ahead.

On whether she has an injury:

“Injury? No. Just my pride is hurt a little bit.”