WhenSimone Bilesattempted her first skill of the gymnastics team event at the Tokyo Olympics, a 2½ twisting vault, she quicklyknew something was off.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist moved off the competition floor to talk with her coach andsoon pulled out of the team, andlater the all-around events, citing issues with her mental health.
Biles, 24, later explained to reporters that she “had no idea where I was in the air,” and that she was “having a little bit of the twisties.”
Simone Biles at the team event.
“You basically start losing that air awareness,” Patterson said. “It is very, very scary, especially when you’re doing the difficult kind of skills that Simone is doing. [You] have no clue when you’re going to hit the ground and how you’re going to hit the ground.”
Six-time All-American Katelyn Ohashi, who went viral for her floor routine as a gymnast for UCLA at the 2019 NCAA Championships, agreed, adding that the twisties are “not something to play with.”
“She can’t just go into a soft surface,” Ohashi said, referencing how Biles could have landed off the mats. “When you have that doubt going into your head, anything can happen in that moment.”
Biles has talked about struggling with the twisties before. In June, ahead of the Olympics, she saidin an interview with Glamourthat one of the toughest skills for her to learn has been a double-double flip on the floor, because she “would just get lost in the air.”
“It took me a long time for my air awareness on that skill,” she explained.
Simone Biles.LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images
Biles' former coach, Aimee Boorman, said that Biles has experienced the twisties at other times in the 12 years that they worked together.
“Every once in a while, she would form this block and it usually had nothing to do with the gymnastics itself, it had to do with other things going on in her, in her universe,” Boormansaid onToday.
While Biles' decision to withdraw from the two events came as a shock, Patterson points out that you can’t plan for the twisties: they just happen.
“I’m so bummed and upset for her.”
Biles and the three other members of Team USA — Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Grace McCallum —won silver at the team competitionafter her withdrawal, andSuni Lee nabbed gold in the all-around eventon Thursday.
Sunisa Lee and Simone Biles.Simone Biles/Instagram
The bronze medalist in the all-around, Russia’s Angelina Melnikova, told reporters after the event that she’s experienced the twisties too.
“I had similar problems when I was a kid and its really, really hard to get rid of this problem,” she says. “It’s very confusing and hard.”
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
source: people.com
