Simone Biles Says She "Should Have Quit" Before the Tokyo Olympics

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There's a good chance you tuned into the Tokyo Olympics for the opportunity to watch Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, do what she does best. Biles ended up winning a bronze for her beam routine and silver medal alongside the rest of the U.S. women's team, but unexpectedly had to withdraw from a series of competition rotations due to mental health concerns and a case of the twisties.

"My mental and physical health is above all medals that I could ever win," she said at a press conference at the time. "So to be clear, to do beam, which I didn't think I was going to be [able to], just meant the world to be back out there. And I wasn't expecting to walk away with the medal. I was just going out there doing this for me. To have one more opportunity to be at the Olympics meant the world to me."

Two months later, Biles reflected on the unexpected course of her second Olympics—and how her decision to withdraw may have been influenced by her experience of abuse at the hands of former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, Larry Nassar. In September, Biles made an emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in regards to the mishandling of the FBI's investigation into Nassar.

Speaking to The Cut, Biles concluded that she "should have quit" before going to the Olympics. "If you looked at everything I’ve gone through for the past seven years, I should have never made another Olympic team,” Biles said. "I should have quit way before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years. It was too much. But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6 years old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me."

Biles added she had no regrets over how she handled the situation. "I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason. And I learned a lot about myself—courage, resilience, how to say no and speak up for yourself," she said.

In the time since the Olympics, Biles has been taking a much needed break, sharing Instagram snaps from a girls' trip in Cabo San Lucas and supporting her boyfriend—former Houstan Texans safety, Jonathan Owens—at his practices. And, according to her interview with The Cut, Biles is in therapy and has found a new philosophy in the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson. "This will probably be something I work through for 20 years,” she said. “No matter how much I try to forget. It’s a work in progress.”

Here's what you need to know about this role model, and the literal G.O.A.T. gymnast.

Biles's has four gymnastics moves named after her.

Seeing as Biles is the most awarded U.S. gymnast in history, it's only natural that she's had a few moves named for her. As of today, Biles has garnered four signature moves across three different events, meaning she's the first in history to successfully complete each in a major international competition. We'll break them down (with some nifty videos) below.

The Biles on Vault

Breaking it down: It's also known as a Yurchenko half on with two twists, which credits the Soviet gymnast Natalie Yurchenko. The Yurchenko aspect of the difficulty includes a round-off on the spring board that then transfers to a back handspring onto the vault. Biles first executed it at competition in 2018 at the World Championships. Its difficulty score of 6.4 sets it as one of the hardest moves in the sport.

Biles may do a completely different vault at the Tokyo Olympics: The Yurchenko double pike. If she sticks it, she'll be the first woman to do so, and it will become her fifth signature move.

The Biles

Breaking it down: A double layout half out—which includes a risky "blind landing"—during her floor routine. She first landed the move at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The Biles II

Breaking it down: For her second powerhouse floor pass, Biles completed a triple-twisting double-tucked salto backwards at the World Championships in 2019. She is the first female gymnast to do so.

The Biles on Balance Beam

Breaking it down: She successfully completed this dismount off the beam—a double-twisting double-tucked salto backwards—at the 2019 World Championships.

Biles has worn a goat bedazzled on her leotards.

During the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, as a nod to her status as "the G.O.A.T.," the gymnast debuted a set of leotards that had rhinestone goats.

"People would talk all this smack, and I didn't think it was necessarily fair for the haters and everybody to talk and for me not to react," she tells Oprah Daily. "So we put it on the leo, because the haters hated it and the fans loved it. So it was win-win for me."

The goat symbol popped up again in July when Twitter debuted a custom hashtag for Biles. She is the first female athlete and first Olympian to receive the honor.

In June, a Facebook Watch docuseries premiered following Biles's road to the Olympics.

As a part of its Versus series, on June 15, Facebook Watch streamed the first of seven episodes of its latest docuseries, Simone vs. Herself. The show provides a behind the scenes look into Biles's life when she's not on a world stage.

In the show, we're provided with intimate scenes filmed her home and her gym in Spring, Texas as she prepares for Tokyo—including the year long wait for the Games after it was delayed in 2020 due to the pandemic.

"I feel like there's a lot that goes on behind closed doors, and people probably think my life is completely different," she says. "At the end of the day, I'm normal. I go through the same things others do, but also there's the hard work and dedication behind those doors that it takes to be where I am—and the team that helped me be where I am as well."

Watch "Simone vs. Herself" Now

Her boyfriend, NFL player Jonathan Owens, didn't know who she was when they first met.

Biles and Owens's tale is a modern love story set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know it doesn't sound incredibly romantic, but these two make it work.

The gymnast revealed to the Wall Street Journal that in March 2020, she slid into the DMs of the Houston Texans safety. The main things that caught her eye? She noticed, "he's pretty cute," and he lived nearby in the Houston area. They started talking and three weeks later, Biles's sister Adria invited Owens to a family lake house getaway. The two were Instagram official by August.

To the surprise of fans everywhere, the football player later revealed to Texas Monthly that he didn't know who Biles was when she first reached out.

“I just hadn’t heard of her, and when I told her that, that’s one of the things she liked,” he told the publication. “We ended up hanging out right before the pandemic. It was one of the few times in her life where everything was just shut off and she couldn’t do anything. So we used it to get to know each other—really get to know each other. It created our bond and made it stronger. Now I’m so thankful."

He continued: “There’s no better person for me. She loves me, she’s so affectionate. I just love that. And it’s just intoxicating seeing how much work she puts into everything.”

Biles's parents own her gym.

Because the athlete's biological mother battled alcohol and drug addiction, Biles was placed in foster care when she was 3 years old. Her maternal grandparents, Nellie and Ronald Biles, adopted the gymnast and her sister Adria in 2000. She calls them Mom and Dad.

"My parents saved me," Biles said on Dancing With the Stars in 2017. "They’ve set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they’ve been there to support me since day one. There’s nothing I could say to them to thank them enough."

In Simone vs. Herself, Nellie opened up about adopting the two young girls: “I remember praying for that bonding, because telling them that you love them and you care for them, that’s all words. But you wake up one day and you realize that you would do anything for these children and that you would die for these children. And when that feeling comes... that’s when you know you’re truly a mother.”

Unfortunately, Nellie and Ronald were not able to watch Biles at the Olympics in-person due to COVID-19 restrictions. The two have never missed one of their daughter's competitions. They own Biles's Spring, Texas gym, The World Champions Centre. It's been open to the public since 2016.

"Representation matters, and we want to inspire the next generation to pursue their passion," she said. "Kids can come in and we will be training in the back, and they can see we are just like them. It helps them understand they can do it, too."

She wore an 88-pound dress to the Met Gala.

What does the Greatest Gymnast of All Time wear to her first Met Gala? A gown that weighs 88 lbs, of course. Biles stepped out at the event's 2021 red carpet rocking a dramatic, sparkling dress that was hand-embellished with thousands of Swarovski crystals. It was so heavy, in fact, that the athlete had six different attendants help carry her train as she walked the carpet.

“How do I feel in the dress? It’s definitely heavy, but I feel beautiful, strong, and empowered,” Biles said to Vogue.

Designed by Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk for AREAxAthleta, Biles's statement piece was a combination of three different outfits: the glittering skirt, a matching mini dress, and a black catsuit decorated with silvery stars. Panszczyk told Vogue that the gown—inspired by showgirls, particularly activist Josephine Baker—took more than 100 people and 6,650 hours to make. It was finished in the early hours of the morning the day before the Met.

“I personally don’t think anybody’s dress is gonna be better than mine,” Biles told the magazine. “I’m sure everyone feels like that going in, but this is going to be a statement. I want to say to little girls in general, you can be tough in any sport you want to be, and you can be strong. On the other end you can come out feeling empowered and beautiful and wear gowns like this and step out of your comfort zone."

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