The Price Of Perfection

Simone Biles’ decision to pull out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has put a spotlight on how the pressure to perform affects mental health

- Dennis Cavernelis

EVEN in a tournament that delivers plenty of shocks and upsets, this was quite something. The best gymnast of all time, a pint-sized powerhouse of a woman who could perform feats like no other, was pulling out.

No, she wasn’t sick. No, she hadn’t injured herself. The pressure had simply become too much. And Simone Biles found herself making headlines not for the sheer incredulity of what she can do but because she simply couldn’t go on any longer.

The 24-year-old star of Team USA had seemed off from the start. She wobbled a bit on the beam during the team competition and failed to nail her landing. Nothing major, but for Biles it was odd. She was at the top of her game and she went into Tokyo 2020 expected to triumph in all her events.

But on the second day of the team competition, something was clearly very wrong. All eyes were on her as she lined up to perform her highly anticipated vault, a spectacular two-and-a-half twist in which she achieved seemingly impossible heights.

But Biles performed just one-and-half twists and the anguish on her face said it all. Soon afterward, the bombshell dropped: she was withdrawing from the team event.

Then it was announced she was pulling out of the all-around too, in which gymnasts compete individually on all the apparatus.

A few days before, Biles had written a now-telling post on Instagram. “I truly feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders sometimes,” she said. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard. The Olympics is no joke.”