Simone Biles’ Approach For 2024 Paris Olympics Includes ‘Limiting Social Media’: EXCLUSIVE

Simone Biles is decided to not let any chatter about her on the web penetrate her mindset on the Paris Olympics, which suggests staying off one social media app particularly.

Coming off the criticism and emotional expertise of the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the famous person gymnast informed Hoda Kotb on TODAY July 17 that she has a plan relating to her telephone.

“Limiting social media and stuff like that’s going to be (vital),” Biles stated.

Biles stated she plans on utterly staying off X, previously Twitter, throughout the Olympics whereas nonetheless utilizing Instagram and TikTok.

“Insta is sweet. It’s a great way to attach,” she stated. “It’s a technique to share what we’re going by. And TikTok. I’ve tried to make a little bit extra TikToks, I’m not the best at that. I’m studying.”

Biles is trying so as to add to her record-setting legacy by profitable all-around gold and extra in Paris. It comes three years after she withdrew from the crew competitors finals and all however one particular person occasion in Tokyo after experiencing “the twisties,” which left her disoriented midair.

She confronted fierce criticism for her choice to withdraw. Biles spoke on an April episode of the podcast “Name Her Daddy” with Alex Cooper about dreading social media when she was struggling in Tokyo.

“As quickly as I landed (my vault), I used to be like, ‘Oh, America hates me,’” she stated. “‘The world goes to hate me. And I can solely see what they’re saying on Twitter proper now.’ That was my first thought.”

Nonetheless, to her it isn’t about medals or silencing the net doubters in Paris.

“I’d say the one factor I’ve to show is to myself that I can get on the market and do it once more,” she informed Hoda.

She desires her legacy to be extra than simply record-setting medal totals.

“So long as I used to be having enjoyable and doing what I like, then that’s all that you are able to do, as a result of I don’t wish to look again 50 years from now and be like, ‘Wow, she was good, however she was so depressing,'” Biles stated.

“And I feel a pair instances I may need thought that, however now I’m similar to, ‘Wow, have a look at her go. She’s having a lot enjoyable. She’s loving what she’s doing, who she’s doing it with.’ So actually, simply embracing that second.”

Probably the most adorned gymnast of all time is taking what she’s discovered within the years because the Tokyo Video games to fortify her for the competitors in France.

“I’m a little bit bit older, extra mature, so simply being unapologetically me,” she stated.

She additionally stated one other apply has helped her mindset this time round.

“Remedy,” she stated. “I feel earlier than I used to be sort of pushing down my trauma, and now I’ve discovered to talk on it and sort of launch that. I feel we used to consider remedy as a weak spot, and now I consider it as a energy.”

She roared all the best way again to win her sixth all-around world title in 2023, however her return to competitors was not a foregone conclusion. She thought-about that her profession is perhaps over after Tokyo.

“It took awhile, as a result of I used to be watching gymnastics on TV, however then, each time any individual twisted (in midair), I used to be like, ‘Oh, my gosh,'” Biles stated. “So I really feel like, at some point I simply awoke and I used to be like, ‘OK, let’s do that once more.'”

Even her coaches have been skeptical at first.

“I used to be like, ‘OK, I wish to go to the Olympics once more.’ And so they have been like, ‘No,'” Biles stated. “And I used to be like, ‘That’s unusual. That’s so bizarre.’

“After which they have been sort of like, ‘Get again within the health club. Get your abilities again. Let’s see in the event you really wish to do that in order that we’re all collectively deciding that we’re actually going to go for it.'”

Biles can also be pushing the boundaries of a sport the place many opponents see their careers finish by the point their teen years are barely over.

No competitor over 20 has gained the ladies’s all-around Olympic gold in gymnastics since Věra Čáslavská of the previous nation of Czechoslovakia captured it at 26 in 1968. Biles was 19 when she gained gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and American star Suni Lee was 18 when she introduced it house in Tokyo.

The oldest lady to ever win the all-around gold was Maria Gorokhovskaya of the previous Soviet Union, who did it at 30 in 1952, which was the primary 12 months that ladies’s particular person gymnastics occasions have been contested on the Olympics.

Whereas Biles stated 27 is “previous” for a gymnast, she was not discouraged to compete by anybody on account of her age.

“No, however I feel there have been speculations like, now you see women like (Crew USA teammate) Hezly (Rivera), she’s 16, and I have a look at her like, ‘Wow,'” Biles stated. “She has such a protracted profession forward of her.”

In her quest to defy the game’s age limits, she additionally could have her assist system by her facet in Paris.

Her husband, Chicago Bears security Jonathan Owens, shall be in attendance in France with Biles’ dad and mom, Nellie and Ronald. None of them have been in a position to journey to the Tokyo Video games as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented any spectators from attending.

“I feel it’s going to be similar to Rio, having household there to assist no matter we want, however actually simply having enjoyable, embracing that second, making these recollections,” she stated. “I’m excited that I get to do it with my household.”

With all of the adjustments she’s made because the Tokyo Olympics, she enters Paris able to shine on the world’s greatest stage.

“I feel we’re going to get the job performed,” she stated. “I really feel actually assured.”