UPDATE: Biles wins a bronze medal in the beam finals, scoring behind China’s Tang Xijing and Guan Chenchen of China, who won gold.
The Olympian is now feeling good enough to give the Games another go.
US gymnastics star Simone Biles is set to make her return to the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday night with a final routine on the event where she currently reigns as the world champion: the balance beam.
This will be Biles’ first outing in the Ariake Gymnastics Center since withdrawing from the event on Thursday night where she skipped the all-around competition, citing the need to prioritize her physical well-being and mental health.
During Thursday’s routine, Biles experienced what is called a case of “the twisties,” where she lost her sense of awareness in the air. Such a fault can have catastrophic consequences to the performance, if not the overall safety, of a gymnast on the floor. Biles had said that the twisties had affected her on each apparatus ever since she landed in Tokyo.
“I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to,” Biles, 24, said after the team final per Washington Post. “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. I came here, and I felt like I was still doing it for other people. So that just hurts my heart that doing what I love has been kind of taken away from me to please other people.”
One of the highly-anticipated success stories of this year’s Olympics, Biles was poised to win a record of five gold medals and make history as the first woman in more than 50 years to win back-to-back all-around titles after her stellar performance in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. She rejoins US teammate Suni Lee and will be up third in the eight-person beam final on Tuesday.
