Four-time Olympic gold-winning gymnast Simone Biles announced her return to professional competition on Wednesday after a two-year absence after publicly declaring she would be taking a break to worry about her mental health.
The American Gymnastics Federation was in charge of revealing the news, assuring that Biles will compete in the US Classic that will be held between August 4 and 5 in Chicago.
This competition brings together the elite of American gymnasts and serves as a qualifying event for the United States Gymnastics Championships, scheduled for August 24-27 in San José (California).
This year, Biles will headline the US Classic in a field that also includes Olympic gold medalists Sunisa Lee (2020) and Jade Carey (2020).
The 26-year-old athlete won five medals at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, four golds and one bronze, and two at the Tokyo Games, one silver and one bronze. At those Games, she withdrew from the team final due to a mind-body disconnect, known in gymnastic parlance as ‘twisties’.
Subsequently, the situation was repeated in the Tokyo 2020 vault exercise and ended up losing the individual, floor, vault and asymmetric finals on the following days; Biles participated in the barre with a modified exercise for which she won the bronze medal.
Biles has not competed since the Tokyo tournament and in the last two years she has focused on her mental well-being, in addition to becoming a benchmark in defending the rights of athletes.
Biles’ return to competitions is great news, not only for the athlete, but also as proof that little by little mental health must be strengthened above all else.
Her well-being with herself led her to report on her marriage to Jonathan Owens, a player for the Houston Texans football team, on April 24, three years after they met.
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