Simone Biles Competing at the World Championships 'Less than 24 Hours' After Hospital Visit
By Joelle Goldstein
Simone Biles won’t let anything — not even a kidney stone — get in her way of winning a championship!
On Friday, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, 21, revealed that she was in the hospital, just one day before she is set to compete in the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
“Nothing like a late night ER visit less than 24 hrs before world championships,” Biles wrote on Twitter. “This kidney stone can wait…. doing it for my team! I’ll be gucci girls!”
Alongside the message, the star shared two photos of herself in the hospital: one smiling selfie and another shot of her legs in the hospital bed.
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She also shared the selfie to her Instagram and captioned the shot, “This kidney stone has nothing on world championships.”
Since USA Gymnastics announced the team on Oct. 12, Biles has spent her time training for the World Championships alongside teammates Kara Eaker, Morgan Hurd, Grace McCallum, Riley McCusker and Ragan Smith.
Competition begins on Oct. 27 for the women, starting with qualification rounds, and will wrap up on Nov. 4. The top three countries who medal in the team competition will advance to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to USA Gymnastics.
just another gymnastics post for ya babes 💙 bc its worlds. why not!
A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles) on Oct 25, 2018 at 8:32am PDT
Biles has previously said she looks forward to returning to the Olympic stage in two years.
“Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, that is the goal,” Biles said during a Today show appearance in August, after she swept the overall competition and all four individual events during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
The last female gymnast to win both the all-around and individual event titles was Dominique Dawes, who accomplished the feat in 1994 — nearly three years before Biles was born.
While appearing on the morning show, Biles also discussed the teal leotard she wore at the championships, and the matching jacket she wore on Today — both a tribute to sexual assault survivors.
Biles was one of the hundreds of gymnasts who accused Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, of sexual abuse.
“So the color teal is for sexual abuse survivors, and I think it’s very special,” she explained. “I got to wear it this morning and I also got to wear it day two of competition for all of us to unite and for me to support all of them.”
After coming forward in January with her own experience of sexual abuse by Nassar, Biles opened up to PEOPLE about the process of moving on.
“I feel good and I feel a bit of relief because I don’t have to keep it in anymore,” she explained to PEOPLE. “I have my family supporting me, friends and my group of people I rely on supporting me … But it’s not easy for any of us to go through.”
“It was a hard subject for me to speak up about,” she continued. “Hopefully people realize that they’re not the only ones going through this situation. Hopefully I inspire them to come out and to not be ashamed about it.”
