After Simone Biles withdrew from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, she delivered a message to her teammates to motivate them prior to squaring off against the Russian Olympic Committee in the gymnastics team final.
“I’m sorry. I love you guys, but you’re gonna be just fine,” Biles told her teammates. “You guys have trained your whole entire life for this, it’s fine. I’ve been to an Olympics, I’ll be fine. This is your first — you go out there and kick a–, okay?”
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The United States came away with silver in the competition, but Biles withdrawing after competing in just one event was the storyline at the Olympics, especially since it was a non-injury-related reason.
Biles, who is still eligible to compete in the individual all-around later in the week, told reporters that she wasn’t injured, but she was “dealing with a few things.”
SIMONE BILES REMARKS ON ‘STRESSFUL’ OLYMPICS AFTER EARLY EXIT, SAYS SHE HAS NO INJURY
“No injury thankfully, and that’s why I took a step back because I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured,” Biles said, via Olympics.com. “I thought it was best that these girls took over and did the rest of the job, which they absolutely did — they’re Olympic silver medalists. They should be really proud of themselves for how well they did.”
Biles also talked about the stress that had been put on her and her teammates’ shoulders.
“It’s been a really stressful Olympic Games as a whole; not having an audience — there are a lot of different variables going into it [the Games],” she added. “It’s been a long week; it’s been a long Olympic process/year. I think we’re a little bit too stressed out. We should be out here having fun, and sometimes that’s not the case.
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“Today has been really stressful, we had a workout this morning; it went OK but during that five-and-a-half hour wait I was shaking – I could barely nap. I had never felt like that going into a competition before. I tried to go out here and have fun; the warmup in the back went a little bit better but once I came out here I was like, ‘no, mentals [sic] not here so I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself.’”
USA Gymnastics said Biles suffered a “medical issue” after her vault attempt, which led to the scratch. The broadcast initially said it was for a “mental health issue.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
