Simone Biles withdraws from Thursday’s women’s all-around final

USA Gymnastics confirmed to Tokyo 2020 that six-time Olympic medallist Simone Biles will not participate in Thursday’s (29 July) women’s all-around final.

“After further medical evaluation, Simone Biles has withdrawn from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, in order to focus on her mental health,” read a statement from the governing body. “Simone will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether or not to participate in next week’s individual event finals. Jade Carey, who had the ninth highest score in qualifications, will participate in her place in the all-around.”

“We wholeheartedly support Simone’s decision and applaud her bravery in prioritizing her well-being. Her courage shows, yet again, why she is a role model for so many,” the statement concluded.

Earlier in the day, USA Gymnastics confirmed that Biles had gone to practice.

Biles scratched from Tuesday’s women’s team final after missing an attempt at a two-and-a-half twisting vault. She performed just one-and-a-half twists, landed in a deep squat and scored just 13.733. Team USA picked up without its star in the final three rotations (uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise) and claimed the silver medal behind eventual champions ROC.

“I think they get a gold medal in fighting. They never gave up,” Biles told Olympics.com. “And look at them, they did exactly what I said they would do, they were going to go out there and do what they were supposed to. Now, they’re Olympic silver medallists.”

Biles said her main concern in withdrawing from the team event was costing her teammates a medal.

“I was like, ‘I think the girls need to do the rest of the competition without me,’ and they were like, ‘I promise you, you’re fine. We watched you warm up.’ And I said, ‘no, I know I’m going to be fine, but I can’t risk a medal for the team, so I need to call it'” Biles explained in a post-event press conference. “And you usually don’t hear me say things like that because I’ll usually persevere and push through things, but not to cost the team a medal.”

Biles has qualified to all four of the apparatus finals with the vault and uneven bars finals set for 1 August, floor exercise on 2 August. Balance beam is the last women’s artistic gymnastics final of the Olympics and is scheduled for 3 August.

The world’s most dominant gymnast praised her team-mates for winning USA team silver at Tokyo 2020 after admitting that continuing might have cost them a medal. Biles said she was looking forward to a “good mental rest” ahead of deciding whether to take part in further competition at these Games.