The Daily - The Story of Simone Biles

Episode Date: July 30, 2021

This episode contains mentions of sexual abuse.Simone Biles, 24, showed up on the national stage at 16, when she competed in and won the national championships. She equally impressed at her first Olympics, in 2016 in Rio.Going into the Tokyo Games this year, Ms. Biles — who is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time — was expected to win the all-around. So she shocked many this week when she pulled out of the competition.What prompted her decision?Guest: Juliet Macur, a sports reporter for The New York Times. Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: Ms. Biles was widely embraced as the latest elite athlete who had the courage to acknowledge her vulnerability. In pulling out of the Olympics, she rejected a long tradition of stoicism in sports.By withdrawing from competition citing concerns over her mental health, Ms. Biles showed that resisting expectations could be more powerful than persisting through them.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, the story of Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, and her decision to drop out of the 2020 Olympics. Sabrina Tavernisi spoke with our colleague in Tokyo, Juliette McCour. It's Friday, July 30th.

Juliette, what time is it for you right now? What time is it here in Tokyo? I have no idea. What day is it? I think it's Thursday at 11 o'clock a.m. Kind of lost track. This is the life of a New York Times reporter covering the Olympics. Yeah, some people have morning events, but gymnastics is mostly in the evening. So like tonight, I'll get there at eight o'clock and I'll stay till like one o'clock in the morning, come back to my hotel and continue writing until, you know, about five.

Yeah, that's late. So gymnastics, this is a sport you've been covering for a very long time. And Simone Biles is someone you've been covering for a very long time. So I'm wondering if you can help us understand how we got to this moment. Where does Simone's story begin? Her story began in Columbus, Ohio, when she was born to a woman named Shannon, Shannon Biles, a single mom who had four kids, unfortunately had a lot of addiction problems. And during my many interviews with her over many years, she's talked a little bit about her backstory. Simone recalls being at home, not having much food or not being fed at all. She looks back sort of with disdain that the cat was fed while the children weren't. At about two years old, Simone and her brothers and sisters were sent to foster care. And then it became even rockier for them moving from house to house until her grandparents adopted her. And they moved to a affluent suburb of Houston where the next turn of her life happened when she went to a gymnastic center for a daycare trip.

For a daycare trip. So when she was a really little kid? It was the same year she was adopted. So it was about when she was about six. She went to this daycare trip to Bannon's Gymnastics. And right away, the coaches noticed how she was able to understand how her body moved. When she came in and did a flip and a half twist, you know, their mouths dropped open. They said, oh my God, how does she do this? Because kids have to first do it into a foam pit or do it with somebody spotting you. She was just able to do things in the air without thinking,

but yet with still knowing where her body is in relation to the ground. And in gymnastics, that's called air awareness. So they knew they had someone special right away. And she moved up very, very quickly in the gymnastics ranks from level to level. And Julia, when does she emerge on the national stage as someone to watch? She emerged pretty quickly. Live from the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, this is the P&G Gymnastics Championship. She basically showed up when she was 16 years old.

We do have one of those new faces. It's a breakout year for her. Simone Biles. At the national championships. She gets through this here, and it is a tremendous start for Simone Biles. And she goes and wins the whole thing, wins the whole all-around. She was just so dominant. She's a star in the making right there. From nationals, the top women on the United States national team

move over to the world championships, which all the best teams in the world compete at. And Simone Biles goes from winning the national championships, going to the world championships, and also winning everything. Another solid goal performance, and a broad, happy smile from Simone Biles. She emerged triumphant. I mean, I would love to have been in those conversations with other teams like Russia and China saying, who is this girl, Simone Biles? She showed up out of nowhere.

And oh, this is not going to be good for us in the next Olympics. We better up our game a little bit. The striking vista of Copacabana Beach on a Friday evening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And then when she gets to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, her first Olympic Games, Simone Biles goes in and does exactly what Simone Biles was expected to do. If she can do this, she will become America's first Olympic gold medalist on this event. And there it is! A vault that's more than 20 feet high in the air.

Oh, my goodness. 15.90 for Simone Biles. Hit every move on the balance beam. And on the floor exercise... 90 seconds away from a dream coming true. She did exactly what everybody had been waiting for, which was this move that nobody else can do. It's two flips in the air,

and then she just adds a twist at the end, which makes it something that nobody has done before and totally unique to Simone Biles. Oh! And she nails it. This has been her destiny all along. I just remember the NBC announcers gushing about her. She is not one of the greats. She is the greatest.

And she just looked like she was just so full of joy, you know, because it was done. She did the thing. But weeks after the Olympics, news came out that would shake the sport forever, that would really change the whole Olympic landscape forever. A former USA gymnastics doctor who's facing several counts of child sex abuse

is expected to be in court. Police arrested Dr. Larry Nassar yesterday. Larry Nassar, the longtime national team doctor, was arrested. The women alleged that the doctor inappropriately touched them and other teammates between 1994 and 2000. And later he was found to molest hundreds of girls and women under the guise of medical treatment. I remember that news about Larry Nassar. And I'm wondering right now, where was Simone in that moment?

How did she fit into that? Simone learned about the Larry Nassar news when we all did. So it was very hard because for the longest time, my parents would ask, hey, Simone, like, they would never push me to talk about it. But my automatic response was no. And I would be angry. And I didn't want to talk about it because I'm like, no, it couldn't happen to me. Like, there's just no way.

angry. And I didn't want to talk about it because I'm like, no, it couldn't happen to me. Like, there's just no way. And eventually Simone was in the car driving and suddenly it hit her that she had been molested also. But once you realized, you know, it happened to you, it's very saddening. I remember just like bawling my eyes out. She called her mom, crying uncontrollably. And they realized that she was among the many people who had been hurt by Nassar. And not only was a victim of Larry Nassar, but also a victim of USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, all the other entities that were enabling Larry Nassar, that had enabled Larry Nassar to hurt so many girls and women. And Simone felt betrayed by that.

So she was dealing with this double trauma. I don't know. It's hard to talk about. It's really hard to talk about. I just feel like, I don't know. I don't mean to cry, but it's just, it's hard coming here for an organization and having had them failed us so many times. And we had won gold. We've done everything that they asked us for, even when we didn't want to.

And they couldn't do one damn job. You had one job. You literally had one job and you couldn't protect us. And it's just really sad. And this is when Simone started to think about all these issues and really feel that nobody really cared for her as a person. They just wanted her to win medals, to be a gymnast. They didn't care for her as a human. It's just hard, and we try to work through it, but it'll take some time.

I'm strong. I'll get through it. But it's hard. Sometime. I'm strong. I'll get through it. But it's hard. Juliet, there was something that I was noticing going back and looking at the coverage from the time. Everybody around her, and really even her, seemed to assume that she was just going to get through it. It's like people were seeing her as this kind of superhero. Like this was just not going to touch her.

I think that Simone felt that, sure, she could get through any of this because she's Simone Biles. She's the greatest gymnast in the world. You know what? While the sport is going through this incredible turmoil, and really the whole Olympic movement was in going through this incredible turmoil of how did we let this serial molester have access to our national team athletes? She did go, started to go to therapy. She did fall into a deep depression over it, was napping all the time. She really struggled with it, but yet she was back in the gym. She was back at the top of the sport. It was like somebody snapped a finger. There was Simone again, winning everything. And she really wants to make it to the 2020 Olympics and can't wait for the day where she can hang up her leotard,

not because she doesn't like the sport anymore, but because she hates USA Gymnastics, doesn't want anything to do with them. And just a few months before those Olympics were supposed to happen, COVID hits. And in March of 2020, the Olympics were postponed until 2021. And the day Simone heard the news, the moment she heard the news, she went to her locker room at the gym, curled up in a corner, and started crying. We'll be right back. So, Juliette, where are things going for Simone heading into the 2021 Olympics? In the year before the Olympics in Tokyo, Simone Biles has to deal with all of these expectations that only have an extra year to grow

because of the pandemic. So not only is she expected to win gold medals in Tokyo, but she's expected to win the Olympic all-around. And if she does, she becomes the first gymnast in 53 years to repeat as Olympic all-around champion. But by the time Simone gets to the Olympic trials in June, it looks like things are starting to crack. Over the balance beam and Simone Biles.

She takes to the balance beam. This element right here, a wolf turn. Nobody spins faster than her on that. She has just complete control of every skill. She looks like she's doing a pretty good routine. First test here, three elements in a row. And that's a champion right there. But on one end of the balance beam...

They can't see that because they're judging. She loses her balance. Struggles to stay on the beam and ends up falling off of it. That's shocking. Shocking for sure. She's almost in tears, but she gets back on it, completes her routine. For the dismount. Just a quick twisting double back. Capable of doing more.

And then walks off the mat and is in shock. And later she said she really feels like she let everybody down. Like Simone Biles doesn't fall off the beam. Simone Biles doesn't lose her balance on things. Certainly Simone Biles doesn't cry at an event. Don't panic folks at home. It's not a problem. Simone Biles will be in Tokyo without any problem at all. You know, going into this Olympics, Simone was different. You can tell that something, something was off. She was giving fewer interviews. And during the interviews she did give after the events leading up to the games, they were very short, maybe 10 minutes on Zoom. It was totally unlike her. I did manage to

talk to her about a week before she left for Tokyo. And it was unlike any other conversation I've had with her. What did she say? Yeah, I asked her, looking back on your career, you know, what is the happiest moment? Just trying to warm her up for the interview. And she gave me quite a surprising answer. She said, honestly, it was during my time off. She said, you know, my ankles really hurt. It hurts to walk. I'm tired. I'm old. You know, the sport has taken a toll on my body. You know, I really want to find out who I am. And so it's like the Tokyo Olympics could not get here quick enough, not only to start, but for them to end. So that's how she was feeling before the games start. Walk me through what happens when she starts to perform. Well, everyone is looking for Simone to do what she's done in the past. So here we go. Simone Biles getting ready on floor exercise,

first routine of the Tokyo Olympics. And she does two moves. And on the very first day of competition, no one else in the world has ever done it. She had a shocking floor exercise. Oh! Where she flew right off the competition carpet and slid down the raised part.

Step off the floor with both feet. That's a three-tenth deduction. On the balance beam, she also stumbled out of the landing. Wow, big steps backwards. And then was making all sorts of faces and sort of pulling at the front of her leotard. It just looked like Simone was totally distracted by something, and it didn't look good. But everyone was saying that by the time the real finals came around,

that the Simone Biles that we all know would return, that she would be the same great gymnast that we've been seeing for over a decade. Her being the greatest of all time, but there is no question, no female gymnast in history has ever taken this event on like Simone Biles. So on the team final day, which is her first chance and the U.S. team's first chance to win a medal, Simone Biles goes on her first event, which is the vault. It doesn't matter what vault she does.

It's a showstopper, and it's must-see TV. She's supposed to do flip with two twists off the vault, which is a difficult vault, but other gymnasts do it. So to Simone Biles, it should be super easy. She starts to do it. She pulls out of it midair. Wow. Ends up doing a one-and-a-half and nearly crashing to do it. She pulls out of it midair. Wow. Ends up doing a one and a half and nearly crashing to the ground.

She catches herself and steps a couple steps forward. Very uncharacteristic vault for Simone, but it looked like she got almost lost in the air. In the arena, we don't know what is going on because this is not what Simone Biles is supposed to do. The beauty of Simone Biles as a gymnast and her natural ability, perhaps her greatest natural ability in the sport, is to know exactly where her body is in space. And that's something that she was good at when she was six. And suddenly Simone Biles at 24 is at the Olympic Games in midair. She has no idea where the ground is.

And nobody knows why. As it turned out, it's actually a phenomenon in gymnastics called the twisties. It's actually a phenomenon in gymnastics called the twisties. And gymnasts and also divers liken it to sort of a disconnect between the brain and the body, where the brain wants to do something and the body just completely forgot how to do it, completely has never twisted or flipped before. I saw one tweet that had actually a very good description of it. It's sort of like driving on the highway and you're trying to do a tricky merge onto a busy street and you completely forgot how to drive a car. Like your brain's trying to make you do it, but your hands and your feet don't know what to do.

And for Simone Biles, she's in midair and can't figure out how many twists she has left. Where is the ground? Am I twisting fast enough? has left? Where is the ground? Am I twisting fast enough? And as soon as you start overthinking in a sport like gymnastics, which has pretty much no margin for error, it could be disastrous. So Juliette, what happens after she falls short in that vault event? Simone walks off the mat after her vault, consults with the team doctor and her coach, and walks out of the arena completely. A few minutes later, she comes back out.

She has her grips on your hands for the uneven bars. She's talking to her teammates, and suddenly everybody's starting to cry. I'm sorry. I love you guys, but you're going to be with us. Later we find out that that's the moment that Simone Biles said, I can't do this. I'm done. You guys have to try your whole entire life, but it's fine.

I've been through a lot. I'll be fine. This is your first. You go out there and kick ass, okay? You guys can do this. I don't want to jeopardize a medal for you. You guys take it from here. do this. I don't want to jeopardize a medal for you. You guys take it from here. And how unusual is that? Coaches have, I've talked to many coaches about this. They haven't seen this in decades in the sport. And I can say that I, in my 11 Olympics, I have never seen any athlete,

especially who's going to be winning the gold, who is so much farther ahead of all of her other competitors, like Simone Biles is, say, you know what? It's not my day today. I'm going to step back. And what does she say about why she's stepping down? She said that she just wasn't in the right headspace to continue and that she feared for her physical health because of it. She said, gymnastics is such a hard sport, such a mental sport that you need to be 100% focused to not hurt yourself. And Simone Biles is doing these signature skills that nobody else can do that are so very dangerous that if you are not focused 100%, there's a chance of severe injury. So she decided to take care of herself and let her teammates take over. You know, until now, the story of Simone Biles has been really the story of triumph, right?

Someone who embodies what Olympic athletes do in the face of these really incredible hardships, which is just power through it. And what's striking about this moment to me is that she's saying, for the first time, I'm not going to power through it. Yeah, in the past, she has power through it. Even when she was struggling in 2018, she had a, ended up going to the emergency room in Doha the night before team qualifying at World Championships because she had kidney stones, but checked herself out that night. So the next day she can go and qualify her team and herself for the finals. In the face of Larry Nassar, she decided to stay with the sport, stay on USA Gymnastics.

But she's doing something that nobody ever would expect of an American gymnast, which is really on the biggest stage at the most crucial moment for her and her teammates, decide that her mental health was worth more than the Olympic gold medal that she had dreamed of as a kid. So I think that she's redefined herself at this moment. Right. She did a remarkable thing as a gymnast, and now she's doing a remarkable thing by not performing. Right. Isn't that an amazing thought, that this woman who's been defined by gymnastics and her physical ability and her mental toughness, as people say, will partially be remembered for this one of the most amazing and shocking moments in Olympic history, which is not what she does on the gymnastics floor. It's what she did off of it.

Thank you so much, Juliet. Thank you. It's been my pleasure. On Thursday night, an American teammate of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, won the gold medal in the signature women's gymnastic event, the all-around competition. Biles, who had been expected to win the all-around competition, cheered on both Lee and the rest of the U.S. team from the stands. We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. We all want our lives to get back to normal. And fully vaccinated workplaces will, will make that happen more quickly and more successfully. On Thursday, President Biden outlined his plan to require that all civilian and military employees of the federal government be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be forced to submit to weekly or twice-weekly testing, social distancing, and mask wearing at work. We all know that in our gut. social distancing, and mask wearing at work. We all know that in our gut.

With incentives and mandates, we can make a huge difference and save a lot of lives. The new rules will affect more than 4 million federal workers across the country and, Biden hopes, serve as a model for local governments and businesses. But there were signs of early resistance to Biden's new rules. Several unions representing tens of thousands of federal employees, from law enforcement officers to postal workers,

said that they saw the requirement as an infringement on their members' rights. infringement on their members' rights. Today's episode was produced by Annie Brown, Stella Tan, and Chelsea Daniel, with help from Rachel Quester. It was edited by Larissa Anderson, contains original music by Alishaba Etube, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell,

and was engineered by Chris Wood. The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lindsay Garrison, Annie Brown, Claire Tennesketter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon-Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Chris Wood, Jessica Chung, Thank you. Our theme music is by Special thanks to That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday. Thank you.