Simone Biles hears it all, from fans and trolls, then listens to herself
As she heads back to the Olympics, Simone Biles has stopped trying to prove her doubters wrong.
Simone Biles waves to fans during the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Wherever Simone Biles goes, mania follows. It’s a fitting welcome for the nation’s best gymnast, who is also one of the most dominant athletes in the world.
Yet wherever she appears, cynicism lurks. It’s a peculiar reaction, one Biles notices and realizes no number of gold medals will change.
Biles’s withdrawal from the competition at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, where she experienced a sensation with a silly name (but one that presents dangerous consequences), produced a wellspring of empathy and support. However, Biles’s decision to prioritize her mental health also gave license for some to call her a quitter.
High-level athletes love to fuel up on negativity. Even the best go searching for an anonymous “they” — anyone who dares express an opinion other than adoration — for inspiration. Just listen to an athlete fresh off a triumph and in the throes of adrenaline give an audience to his or her haters.
They doubted me! Biles, too, discovers online trolls here and there, nesting in the comments sections just to rehash what happened in 2021. But during her gymnastics comeback, with her skills as astonishing as ever, Biles has given up on trying to disprove her doubters.
Late Sunday night, after Biles earned an Olympic berth by crushing the all-around competition at the U.S. women’s trials, she considered the quadrennial observers of gymnastics. The ones who last thought about vaults and bars during her nightmare in Tokyo. Biles knows they’re out there and they have opinions. She knows she can’t win back everyone.
“It doesn’t even matter if I do it. They’ll still say: ‘Oh, my gosh, are you going to quit again?’” Biles said. “And if I did, what are you going to do about it? Tweet me some more? Like, I’ve already dealt with it for three years.”
Simone Biles’ Olympic trilogy: Super. Human. Transcendent.
To witness the contrast between the boisterous followers of gymnastics who worship her and the small yet bombastic community that reviles what she did, you only need to spend a few minutes in a sold-out arena.
The screams are deafening. When Biles appears, girls in the crowd — and even their parents — lose themselves. They know the sport and observe every moment with a proctor’s eye for detail. During the first day of the women’s trials, Biles looked shaky on the beam, and the crowd gasped, thinking the G.O.A.T. would fall.
When she dismounted, needing to take a step back to catch herself, Biles rolled her eyes and mouthed a naughty word. The crowd reacted with a pearl-clutching reaction: “Oooo!”
The second night, Biles commanded her floor routine, the crowd hanging on every tumbling pass, every atmosphere-defying leap that propelled this 4-foot-8 human 12 feet into the air. Teammate Jordan Chiles watched wide-eyed from the floor, cheering her on.
Biles’s fans couldn’t get as close as Chiles, but when she finished — placing her right hand up to her face in a playful way — like Oh! Look what I just did! — they jumped to their feet in appreciation. Even some of the judges were smiling.
Later, the biggest pop star in the world replied to a post that replayed Biles’s performance, expressing her awe with six emoji. Taylor Swift’s message garnered 2 million views and counting.
Their love is loud and unrestrained. Biles hears it all.
“Oh, my goodness! Thank you guys so much, I wouldn’t be here without all of you,” Biles said late Sunday night, when asked to give a message to the fans who packed Target Center.
“Each and every comment that I see or tweet or parents’ Instagrams that are like: ‘Oh, my gosh. My daughter’s wearing your [leotard]. She’s so excited!’ … It’s just really exciting. It warms my heart, and I see most of it, but it just keeps me running.”
And yet, resentment persists. Biles posted a series of photos on Instagram ahead of the trials, each one showing glimpses of her effervescent personality. In the avalanche of adoration and approvals of yassss queen!, one rogue comment called her a “Quitter.”
Last month, in the comments on a Washington Post story that focused on Biles returning with more challenging routines after Tokyo, one user accused her of “whining.” Another expressed the sarcastic hope she “does not choke this time.”
