Simone Biles’ decision to pull out of the women’s team final has prompted comments and analysis around the world, including much praise for Biles’ choosing to prioritize her mental health.
Biles spoke at length about her decision, saying she was shaking before the Olympic team gymnastics final — and that she withdrew after realizing that the “mental’s not there.” Biles has nowalso withdrawn from the individual all-around competition.
Here’s NPR’s transcript of what Biles said at the news conference that followed Tuesday’s team event, in which the U.S. women won silver.
Her decision to withdraw after her vault in the final
I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness. And I knew that the girls would do an absolutely great job. And I didn’t want to risk the team a medal for kind of my screwups, because they’ve worked way too hard for that. So I just decided that those girls need to go and do the rest of our competition.