Tokyo
Simone Biles was trying to tell us for a long, long time.
In recent years, the transcendent gymnast regularly signaled her ambivalence about putting her body on the line for a sport that had ground her down both physically and mentally. She was candid about her aversion at representing organizations—USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee—she believes failed to protect her and hundreds of others from sexual abuse by a team physician, Larry Nassar.
These are not old scandals; they’re open wounds. To Biles, gymnastics weren’t an easy escape —they were a reminder of trauma.
As a result, this remarkable talent, capable of producing earth’s most joyful athletic moments, could occasionally seem deprived of joy herself. To her credit, Biles didn’t try to hide this, either. The same person who could torque her airborne body in ways that thrillingly defied gravity, also publicly acknowledged depression in which she slept all the time, because it was the “closest thing to death.”
