Simone Biles, winner of four Olympic gold medals, has admitted to doubts over whether she could train an extra year for the postponed Tokyo Games - but now wants to prove she can be even better at 2021’s rearranged Olympics.
The United States gymnast, 23, was due to retire after Tokyo 2020 and was unsure if she could take another 15 months of preparations.“It’s a lot mentally and physically, and I doubted my ability if I could even stay on top of my game for another year,” Biles told BBC Sport.
“My motivation now is proving to myself that I can go another year, I can do it again, and I can hopefully be better than I was in Rio.” Biles is the most successful gymnast in World Championships history and had the chance to make the same claim at Olympic level this summer. However, she has now had to “reset” her mind for another 15 months of hard work after the coronavirus pandemic forced the Tokyo showpiece to be postponed. “I cried,” said Biles, “I didn’t really know where to start with the news.
“Obviously right now there are bigger problems than having the Olympics postponed.
“But in three months I was ready to clock out and be done. I had my mind set for four years, so how do you go from one day being told ‘hey, sorry, another year’? It’s hard to reset the calendar and the clock when you’ve been preparing your whole life to be ready at this certain time.
“So to have that set back it was just kind of crushing.”
And Biles admitted she did then consider the notion of not continuing through to the rescheduled Olympics in July 2021.
“A little bit, yes,” she said. It’s hard but I think I’m pretty strong mentally and physically so I’ll get through it just like everybody else.
“But, I feel that I didn’t come this far to just give up and I want to be the one who makes the decision if I’m done with the sport or not.”