Simone Biles. Elsa/Getty Images
Simone Biles is ready to prove herself.
“This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give,” Biles, 27, told reporters at a press conference late Sunday, June 30, after she was announced for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Biles is one of five women going to Paris later this month. She will be joined by Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles — with whom she was part of the 2020 team — as well as newcomer Hezly Rivera.
During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Biles withdrew from various events, citing her mental health and suffering from the “twisties,” which caused her to become disoriented in the air during the competition.
Even the GOAT needs a break sometimes. Simone Biles shocked the world when she bowed out of the Tokyo Olympics — but that wasn’t the first time she’d advocated for her mental health. In July 2021, the four-time Olympic gold medalist fell while trying to land a vault in the team final in Japan and […]
“I know we’re stronger than what we showed in Tokyo, so I think it has to be for us because it can’t be for anybody else — that’s not why we do it,” Biles said. “We do it for ourselves, and the love for the sport, and the love for representing the U.S. We’re going to go out there and we’re going to do our best.”
“It has to be for us because it can’t be for anybody else.” – Simone Biles#ParisOlympics x #USAGTrials24 pic.twitter.com/RF2U1dllTY
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 1, 2024
Biles added that she’s not fazed by the critics who called her a “quitter,” among other things, amid her health struggles at the 2020 Games.
“They’ll still say like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you going to quit again, are you going to quit again?’ And if I did, what are you going to do about it? Tweet me some more?” she said, as reported by People. ”Like, I’ve already dealt with it for three years. But yeah, they want to see us fail.”
“They want to see the rise to success, and then as soon as you get it and do kind of take that and run with it and you start reigning for a really long time, they want to see the downfall,” she continued. “[It] is really unfortunate because sports hasn’t seen athletes like we’ve seen before. So you really have to give them their flowers in the sport, because once they’re gone you’re going to miss them.”
Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens are a match made in world-class athlete heaven. The Olympic gold medalist and the NFL player, who was then a Houston Texans safety, met via the dating app Raya in March 2020. “I didn’t know who she was,” Owens told Texas Monthly in June 2021. “I just hadn’t heard of […]
Biles also revealed that her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, will be cheering her on in Paris after getting special permission to attend some of her events.
The gymnast said the Bears “are actually granting him a couple days off from training camp, so he’ll be there for just a short little time,” per People.