Simone Biles Gets CANDID About Olympics 'Twisties'
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00 I have very good, like, senses,
00:04 and I knew something was gonna go wrong.
00:07 I couldn't pinpoint what it was or when it was gonna happen,
00:10 but I just had this feeling deep down,
00:13 "This is not gonna go the way I want it to."
00:15 [ Siren wails ]
00:18 -Wow.
00:19 -Very uncharacteristic vault for Simone.
00:22 -My teammates are shook.
00:23 They're like, "Are you okay? Are you okay?"
00:25 And I'm trying to convince myself I'm okay,
00:27 so I don't need you asking me if I'm okay.
00:29 Because I'm okay. Listen, I'm okay.
00:31 -We're great. -Like, everything is not okay.
00:34 -Simone reliving her twisties experience
00:37 at the Tokyo Olympics with Alex and what went through her mind
00:39 after landing her vault jump in Tokyo.
00:42 -As soon as I landed, I was like,
00:45 "Oh, America hates me.
00:50 The world is gonna hate me,
00:52 and I can only see what they're saying on Twitter right now."
00:55 That was my first thought.
00:56 "Oh, I thought I was gonna be banned from America."
00:59 I couldn't understand why that happened, either,
01:01 'cause I'm like, "Gymnastics?
01:03 Like, what the heck is going on? Why is this happening?"
01:06 And then my therapist is like, "Well, we know why it happened."
01:10 -Simone tells Alex her Olympic twisties
01:12 were brought on by emotional trauma.
01:14 She was one of hundreds of women who came forward in 2018
01:16 as sexual abuse victims of ex-USA gymnastics doctor
01:20 Larry Nassar.
01:21 -Compressing all of this [bleep] for so many years,
01:24 it just unfolded. -Right.
01:26 -Like, you can't -- You can't compress trauma.
01:28 -How did processing this trauma show up in your day-to-day life?
01:33 -Well, at that point, I was diagnosed
01:36 with depression and anxiety.
01:40 It felt like I held a lot of the guilt
01:41 that wasn't mine to hold,
01:43 and I learned through therapy, like,
01:45 "Yes, this is not my guilt to hold,"
01:47 but to convince myself that is really, really hard,
01:51 and I think I'm still working on that in therapy.
01:54 Like, it's gotten a lot better.
01:55 -Simone opened up to Alex on many topics,
01:58 including entering foster care at the age of 3
02:01 and being adopted by her grandparents at 6.
02:04 It's about the same time she began her gymnastics journey,
02:06 which was all so consuming,
02:08 she admits she missed out on a lot.
02:10 -Did you get to have any, like, typical teenage experiences?
02:13 Like, did you go to prom? -None. None.
02:15 The first time I danced with a boy
02:17 was on "Dancing with the Stars" with Sasha,
02:19 and it was after the Olympics. I was, like, 19 years old.
02:21 I remember he, like, got in my face, grabbed me,
02:23 and I was like, "Aah!" Like, freaking out.
02:26 Talk about, like, a culture shock.
02:29 ♪♪
02:29 ♪♪