Simone, Simone. Ms. Biles. Yes, she is most assuredly the worldwide acknowledged gymnastics GOAT who reinforced that status on July 30 by leading her team to Olympic Gold–again. But as she takes what is likely her final Olympic bows against those bright lights of Paris, she should be revered for far more than her breathtaking mastery of the sport.
Perhaps, most importantly, she has rightfully earned her title by her majestic leadership as a Black woman who is walking courageously along the same path our most beloved sheroes have walked along.
Tokyo was one of Biles greatest feats
In 2020, at the Tokyo Olympics, Simone made the incredibly brave decision to temporarily withdraw from competition. It was her mental health, she told the world and all those Black girls watching. All those Black girls who are going for the gold in their own lives but are also sometimes bereft, lonely, worried about failure, living their own “twisties”– the condition we learned of in 2020 from Biles where gymnasts lose their sense of direction in the air. And Tokyo wasn’t the first time she’d confronted the challenge.
She had battled with the condition before leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics and during the 2019 season, according to Time, but found a way to push through. Only she and those closest to her know the cost of that decision. But one thing we all is that she refused to make it again–and she refused to hide it.
More, in announcing her temporary withdrawal, Biles could have claimed any reason. She could have said she was physically harmed after her vault that year. She could have used any number of plausible–but false–narratives. But what she did was to demonstrate to young Black women everywhere–to all young women everywhere and older ones too–that there is nothing more gold than our emotional and mental wellness. Without them, everything else is doomed to fall apart.
But Simone embodied the wisdom of the late, great Black feminist…
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