Before the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles “was heavily favored to repeat her four-gold dominance from Rio,” CBS Sports wrote. On Tuesday, July 27, 2021, in “the women’s gymnastics team final at Ariake Gymnastics Centre,” as the Associated Press put it, she stepped up to the vault: “Biles was scheduled to do an ‘Amanar’ vault that requires a roundoff back handspring onto the table followed by 2 1/2 twists.” Instead, Team USA wrote, she “managed to twist just 1.5 times, then barely landed on her feet”; the AP said she “did just 1 1/2 twists with a big leap forward after landing.”
“The twisties is something all gymnasts know,” Team USA wrote, and “in the coming days Biles confirmed she was experiencing the twisties.” NBC Chicago explained that the twisties “refer to a phenomenon wherein an experienced athlete suddenly loses their sense of where their body is in space.” At her news conference after the team final, AFP reported, she said: “I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to, and I don’t know if it’s age.” And, NBC reported, “I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured.”
She “walked out of the team final after the first rotation,” Team USA says. With her out, the AP reported, the Russian Olympic Committee surged to gold, and the United States “held on for silver.” Then, “As finals approached, Biles withdrew from the all-around, then the bars, floor and vault finals.” Critics, TODAY reported, “have called her a ‘quitter.’” A week after the team final, on “Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021,” she was back for the beam final: “she changed her dismount to the easier double pike, which doesn’t involve any spins,” Team USA reported, scored “14.000,” and “Biles remained in third place,” for bronze.
“It means more than all the golds because I’ve pushed through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here,” she told Hoda Kotb, TODAY reported. A month after Tokyo, answering the critics on Instagram, she wrote: “the word quitter is not in my vocabulary.” Before Paris, in July 2024, she told the AP that the critics would “still say like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re going to quit again? Or are you going to quit again?’”
In Paris, three years after Tokyo, “She won a team gold Tuesday and followed with wins in the all-around and vault competitions Thursday and Saturday,” CBS Sports wrote. On vault, NBC New York reported, “Saturday’s gold is her third medal of the Paris Games”; in Tokyo, the twisties had “forced her to withdraw from most of her events that summer, including the vault final.” On floor, “Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade took gold with a 14.166,” and Biles, after “two out-of-bounds steps,” took silver with 14.133. “Biles is up to 11 Olympic medals,” CBS Sports wrote.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- The world’s best gymnast got lost in mid-air, then was branded a quitter. CBS Sports: before Tokyo, “she was heavily favored to repeat her four-gold dominance from Rio.” NBC Chicago: the twisties “refer to a phenomenon wherein an experienced athlete suddenly loses their sense of where their body is in space.” TODAY: she “responded to critics who have called her a ‘quitter.’” 845
- Her name is Simone Biles. Team USA (August 3, 2021): “With A Bronze-Medal Performance On Beam, Simone Biles Leaves Tokyo On Her Own Terms.” 1
- In Tokyo, in July 2021, she went for two and a half twists on vault. Associated Press (July 27, 2021): “Biles was scheduled to do an ‘Amanar’ vault that requires a roundoff back handspring onto the table followed by 2 1/2 twists”; “the women’s gymnastics team final at Ariake Gymnastics Centre Tuesday.” Team USA: “her Amanar, a vault with 2.5 twists.” 21
- In the air, she did only one and a half, and barely landed on her feet. Team USA: she “managed to twist just 1.5 times, then barely landed on her feet.” Associated Press: “Biles instead did just 1 1/2 twists with a big leap forward after landing.” 12
- Gymnasts call it the twisties. Team USA: “the twisties is something all gymnasts know”; “in the coming days Biles confirmed she was experiencing the twisties.” 1
- “I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to,” she said. AFP (her news conference, July 27, 2021): “I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to, and I don’t know if it’s age.” 3
- She pulled out of the team final, the all-around and three more finals. Team USA: she “walked out of the team final after the first rotation”; “As finals approached, Biles withdrew from the all-around, then the bars, floor and vault finals.” 1
- A week later, she returned for the beam final, used an easier dismount and won bronze. Team USA: the beam final on “Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021”; “she changed her dismount to the easier double pike, which doesn’t involve any spins”; “14.000”; “Biles remained in third place.” 1
- “It means more than all the golds,” she said. TODAY (to Hoda Kotb): “It means more than all the golds because I’ve pushed through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here.” 5
- “The word quitter,” she later wrote, “is not in my vocabulary.” TODAY (her Instagram caption, a month after Tokyo): “I’ve pushed through so much the past couple years” … “the word quitter is not in my vocabulary.” Associated Press (July 2024), before Paris: the critics would “still say like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re going to quit again? Or are you going to quit again?’” 56
- In Paris, three years later, she won gold with the team. CBS Sports: “She won a team gold Tuesday and followed with wins in the all-around and vault competitions Thursday and Saturday.” 8
- Gold in the all-around. CBS Sports: “followed with wins in the all-around and vault competitions.” 8
- Silver on floor. CBS Sports: “Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade took gold with a 14.166”; Biles scored 14.133, after “two out-of-bounds steps”; “Biles is up to 11 Olympic medals.” 8
- And gold on vault, where it all fell apart in Tokyo. NBC New York (August 3, 2024): “Simone Biles delivers stunning vaults to win 7th Olympic gold medal”; “Saturday’s gold is her third medal of the Paris Games”; in 2021 the twisties “forced her to withdraw from most of her events that summer, including the vault final.” 7
Sources
- With A Bronze-Medal Performance On Beam, Simone Biles Leaves Tokyo On Her Own Terms (Chrös McDougall, August 3, 2021) Team USA
- Russia wins gold in women’s gymnastics after Biles exit; U.S. takes silver (July 27, 2021) The Associated Press, on MPR News
- Simone Biles’s news conference after the Tokyo team final, as reported by AFP (July 28, 2021) AFP, on New Straits Times
- What Are the ‘Twisties’ and What Did They Mean for Simone Biles’ Exit? (July 28, 2021) NBC Chicago
- Simone Biles reflects 1 month after Olympics, responds to critics who call her a quitter (Francesca Gariano, September 4, 2021) TODAY
- Simone Biles has moved past Tokyo. If critics can’t, she says that’s their problem, not hers (Will Graves, July 15, 2024) The Associated Press, on KPRC Click2Houston
- Simone Biles delivers stunning vaults to win 7th Olympic gold medal (August 3, 2024) NBC New York
- Paris Olympics 2024: Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles finish redemption tour with silver, bronze on floor exercise (Lyle Fitzsimmons, August 5, 2024) CBS Sports
Notes
“The world’s best gymnast” is the Short’s own description, not a quote; CBS Sports wrote that before Tokyo she “was heavily favored to repeat her four-gold dominance from Rio.”
Which vault: NBC New York’s 2024 report links Tokyo to a different vault, the Yurchenko double pike. The Associated Press and Team USA, writing at the time, say the team-final vault was an Amanar with two and a half twists, and the Short follows them.
“Pulled out of the team final”: she did her vault, then left after the first rotation (Team USA, the Associated Press). “A week later”: the team final was on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, and the beam final on Tuesday, August 3 (Team USA).
Paris: team gold came on July 30, 2024, all-around gold on August 1, vault gold on August 3 and floor silver on August 5. The Short names the floor silver before the vault gold, to end on the vault, and gives no dates. The floor bronze is not part of this story.
Simone Biles is alive. How she felt in Tokyo is told only in her own published words, as AFP, NBC, TODAY and the Associated Press reported them; nothing else about her health, her family or her private life is used. Rebeca Andrade and Sunisa Lee appear only as medalists.
Pictures: no free photo shows Tokyo 2020 or the Paris vault and floor finals; every picture of those moments we found is agency, broadcast or Olympic media, so none is used. Simone Biles is at the Rio 2016 Olympics in training on August 4, 2016 (two photos, by Fernando Frazão of Agência Brasil, as are all the Rio photos), at the team final on August 9, 2016 (three photos, one of them with her team gold medal; an unnamed official stands at the right of another), and in the beam final on August 15, 2016 (two photos); at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp on October 6, 2023 (Haggis MacHaggis); at the 2024 US Championships on May 31, 2024 (two photos, one of them in practice) and June 2, 2024; at the US Olympic Trials in Minneapolis on June 26, 2024; and at the Paris 2024 Olympics on July 30, 2024, the day of the team final, and on August 1, 2024, in the all-around final and on its podium with Rebeca Andrade (silver) and Sunisa Lee (bronze), all by Ocoudis. The Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo’s gymnastics venue, is seen from outside on October 22, 2023, not during the Games (Suicasmo).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique', Op. 74: IV. Finale: Adagio lamentoso (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0); Mendelssohn, The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Overture, Op. 26 (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, public domain); Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68: IV. Adagio - Piu andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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