She’s pulled off moves that no other gymnast can. But it was her decision to put her mental health ahead of medals that shocked people this Olympics season. This is the incredible story of Simone Biles.
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00:00Most people think I'm not human, but I feel like I go through some of the same problems
00:21they do.
00:22So I feel like if they can relate, then they can kind of think I'm normal.
00:51I kind of knew I wanted to be a gymnast from the start.
00:54It's the very first sport I tried, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but I think gymnastics
00:58found me.
01:22I think one of my greatest strengths as a competitor is whenever I compete, I love to
01:27have fun, and I think that's what helps me and sets me apart.
01:39At the beginning of the year, my mom would always make me write down goals on a piece
01:42of paper and take it to her.
01:45And so that's kind of how I always was very well-driven, because I always had the next
01:50goal in mind.
02:21The Olympic experience for me just kept getting better and better, like we won team gold,
02:31and then we brought home a couple more medals, and then I got to meet Zach, and then I got
02:35to carry the flag, and it was just a huge honor.
02:51It's almost more normalized now, going to therapy and having anxiety, and I think being
02:56in the public eye, almost a lot of us have it.
03:51I was mad, I was annoyed, I was upset, because I felt like I had just been so prepared.
04:14Never in my life have I been that prepared, so I felt like just it sucked for me personally.
04:21I put mental health first, because if you don't, then you're not going to enjoy your
04:40sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to, so it's okay sometimes to
04:45even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself, because it shows how strong of
04:49a competitor and person that you really are, rather than just battle through it.