Simone Biles has tied the record for most medals won by a US gymnast in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics by winning bronze in the balance beam.
This comes on the back of the uproar she generated last week by announcing that she was pulling out of the all-round finals, blaming it on “the twisties” and not being in the right frame of mind. The “twisties” are every gymnast’s nightmare, a situation where they lose awareness in the middle of a routine.
Americans met the announcement with mixed feelings. Some supported her for looking out for herself while others lambasted her for being too selfish to overlook her personal problems and put her best foot forward for her country.
Simone Biles is technically the best gymnast in the world currently, and Americans were hoping she would pull through and dazzle as she did the first time she broke into the Olympics scene in 2012.
Despite all the tension, Biles was able to compete in the games and win a bronze medal even at her lowest, tying her with Larisa Latynina as the most decorated gymnast of all time with a cumulative total of 32 Olympic and world championship medals. It also ties her with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American female gymnast.
Speaking on her performance after copping the bronze medal, she stated, “My mental and physical health is above all medals that I could ever win. So to be clear, to do beam, which I didn’t think I was going to be, 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.”
Source: Ghanacelebrities.com