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 explains exactly why.
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 of the individual finals. During the team final on 27 July 2021 she came off a vault with far less twist than she had planned and stumbled badly on the landing. She had lost track of where her body was in the air mid-skill, a phenomenon gymnasts call 'the twisties'.
She withdrew from the rest of the team final, then from the individual all-around and several event finals, having judged correctly that competing while disoriented in the air was a reliable way to get badly hurt. Her teammates, nicknamed the 'Fighting Four' in her absence, won team silver behind the Russian Olympic Committee.
Biles came back before the Games ended to compete in the balance beam final, an apparatus the twisties affect less, and won bronze with a simplified dismount. What made the week matter beyond the results was that she explained all of it candidly to the press rather than hiding it, and the conversation about what athletes are expected to carry has been different since.
Watch the Moment
