74 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022
BILES AT WORLD
CHAMPIONS CENTRE,
HER GYM IN SPRING,
TEXAS, ON AUG. 29
WITH THE EYES OF THE WORLD UPON HER, THE GREATEST GYMNAST
OF ALL TIME FORCED A GLOBAL CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH
BY ALICE PARK AND SEAN GREGORY
SimoneBilesATHLETE
OF THE YEAR
PHOTOGRAPH BY
DJEN EBA A DUAYOM
FOR TIME
Around 9 p.m. on July 27, As simone Biles
soared high above the vault at the Tokyo Olym-
pics, she lost herself. You could see the confusion in
her eyes, which darted sideways instead of locking
onto the ground as she made her way back to earth.
She would later reveal that she was suffering from a
frightening mental hiccup, known as “the twisties,”
that left her unsure of her whereabouts in midair.
As the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in a sport
that captivates the globe every four years, Biles is
all about control. Her life is dedicated to micro-
managing every possible element—her diet, her
training, her sleep—that goes into performing, so
when the lights are brightest, and the stakes high-
est, little is left to chance. But for Biles, control
isn’t just about winning; it can be the difference
between life and death. She now has four skills
named after her, each a breathtaking combina-
tion of daring flips and twists. Avoiding disaster
requires a constant, firm grip on mental acuity.
On that night, however, the careful tapestry
of control that Biles, 24, had stitched began tounravel. Or at least started to, until she responded
in a way that stunned millions of viewers around
the world. In the middle of the Olympics for which
she had trained for five years, and which was sup-
posed to be the triumphant capstone on a historic
career, Biles slipped on her warm-up suit, packed
her competition bag and told her teammates she
wouldn’t be competing with them, but rather
cheering them on in the team event. Her mind
and body weren’t in sync, she said, which put her
at serious risk. She also withdrew from her next
four events, returning only to participate in the
final one. At an Olympics in which five gold med-
als for Biles seemed preordained, she won a team
silver and a balance-beam bronze.
For her teammates, her withdrawal from events
was a decision they didn’t have time to process as
they scrambled to fill her position in the lineups.
“We all knew we had to continue not without her,
but for her,” says Sunisa Lee, who stepped up to
win the all-around gold in Tokyo. “What Simone