Simone Biles was overwhelmed with anxiety in the Olympic Village.
The 27-year-old gymnast – who won gold in the all-around, vault, floor and team events as well as picking up bronze on balance beam at the Rio Olympics in 2016 before withdrawing from several events at the Tokyo 2020 games – admitted her anxiety was ramping up because she was the focus of so much attention from her fellow athletes.
She said in a TikTok video: “I’m really nervous, but that’s to be expected. I did have therapy this morning, so I feel a little bit better. I’ve just worked so hard, mentally, to get to this moment.
“I have not done much around the Olympic Village, and it’s because the first day we got here, and I got to the cafeteria and a lot of people were asking me for photos, like nonstop, and whenever I sat down to eat my anxiety was so bad I was shaking. [I was] so overwhelmed.
“I just go to the store, stock up on food, and just like, stay here because it gets me so anxious.”
Nine-time Olympic medalist Simone has already won gold with her USA teammates and individually with the all-around gymnastics title at the Paris Olympics and recently revealed that therapy has helped her “physically and mentally”.
She told Today’s Hoda Kotb: “I feel a lot more free, especially going to therapy and doing those sessions so that physically and mentally I feel better, and I know that’s an important part of my routine. So just staying on top of that, it lightens the load a lot.”