Team USA gymnast Simone Biles has hit out at people who ask Olympic athletes a certain question after winning medals.
27-year-old Biles is undeniably dominating the Artistic Gymnastics programme at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The gymnast has already earned two individual gold medals in the Women’s Vault and All-Round competitions and spearheaded Team USA’s win in the Women’s Team category.
Today (August 5), Biles earned a score of 13.1 in the Balance Beam final after a fall, thus missing out on a podium position.
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She still has one more chance at gold as she vies for first place in the Floor Exercise final later this afternoon.
But ahead of today's events, the Ohio-born star sent a plea out to the press who will be interviewing her.
On Sunday (4 August) she posted on X and implored people to stop questioning her on ‘what’s next?’
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“You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics,” she typed.
“Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.”
To hammer her point home, she replied to someone who commented: "What is your next step after winning gold medal??" By saying: “Babysitting the medal.”
Understandably, the seven-time gold medallist wants to revel in her success at the 2024 Olympics after pulling out of the 2020 Tokyo event with the ‘twisties’.
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The latter is a psychological phenomenon where athletes, such as gymnasts and divers, lose all sense of where their body is in the air.
In 2021, Biles claimed that a combination of mental stress and pressure had caused her to experience the ‘twisties’ and later withdraw from the Olympics.
The move was widely criticised and this year Biles has employed a therapist to help with her mental health.
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"The negative comments are painful up to a certain point," she said, as per Sky Sports.
“They hurt but I'm still in therapy working on all that, to make sure my mental health is well. But they (the critics) are really quiet now, so that's strange.
"After all these years of putting the mental work in, it's paid off. I'm super excited to be on this stage again.”
The 27-year-old added that the Olympics is ‘such a draining process’ for athletes so it’s imperative you’re on top of your ‘mental as well as physical [health]’.
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“As long as we're doing that, then we're good. And so far I feel good,” Biles continued.
“Once we're out here, the floor is our stage. It feels so freeing for us because we're in our element, we're having fun, we're doing what we love to do.”
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Simone Biles, Celebrity
Ella Scott