Simone Biles, Gymnast and Olympic Gold Medalist, shocked many people with her decision to drop out of the team gymnastics final after struggling in her first vault routine on the team final . This was because she was suffering from a mental illness called “the twisties”.

“The twisties” is an illness that some gymnasts can get. It causes you to not have any idea where you are or what is happening around you. Biles said she “literally can not tell up from down”. This statement raised many doubts about whether she could compete in the individual events at the Tokyo Olympics.

Biles stated that her “twisties” had just started happening one morning after one of her competitions. She claims that it was “the strangest, weirdest feeling.”

Although she dropped out of the final competition, she said that she was so proud of her teammates and referred to them as “queens” when they continued and landed a silver medal without her. Biles also praised

her teammate Suni Lee on Instagram saying, “So so so beyond proud of you!!!” Lee won gold in the women’s all-around gymnastics event.

Another reason she decided to drop out was because she didn’t want to affect her teammates’ scores. In other words, she didn’t want her team’s final score to go down because of her own score.

This 24-year old gymnast tells those who think she gave up on the competition, “I didn’t quit, my mind and body are simply not in sync.”

Though Biles’ absence was felt by her teammates and fans, her decision to step out of competing to focus on her emotional and mental health continued to make an impact on the sports world.