Simone Biles: Better. Stronger. Golden.
27 and the most decorated US athlete of all time.
For Simone Biles, one of the 'golden girls' of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, winning the fifth gold at the Paris Olympics may have changed the team's medal tally but it did little to stop the snide comments on her hair from surfacing online.
Simone Biles wins fifth gold at Paris Olympics 2024
The 27-year-old athlete led Team USA to a gold medal in the women's gymnastics final on Tuesday | Image: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Here's some perspective. Seven Olympic medals including four golds. 30 World Championship medals including 23 golds. That was the gymnast's tally when entering the 2024 Paris Olympics. On Tuesday, Simone won a fifth Olympic gold and eighth overall Olympic medal after leading Team USA to victory in the women's gymnastics final making the 27-year-old the most decorated US athlete of all time.
So what's all the drama about?
In the moment: Simone Biles at the finals on the Tuesday | Image: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Her hair.
Simone Biles hair never being done properly be pissing me off. Everybody else on the team is put together, then she looks like she just rolled out of bed ??.
¡ª ??? (@_amyri_) July 29, 2024
I¡¯m just trying to figure out why Simone Biles hair never done ? Like girllll come on ? STILL LOVE HER AND HOPE SHE DOES GREAT !
¡ª PrettyyBlacc ?? (@AshleyNicolee6) July 29, 2024
For ages, hair and beauty have been touted as the two big indicators of a woman's beauty. It's not true but it is marketed as fact. If anything, the 2024 Paris Olympics has sadly shown us that you can be a five-time Olympic gold medallist and still get sh*t for the way your hair looks. That's just what being a woman gets you apparently.
And so, every century or so rises a heroine who has to remind people that the hair is there to keep the scalp cool and not define every waking moment of her life. Enter Simone Biles.
The athlete asked people to back off and not make comments on her hair | Image: Simone Biles/Instagram
The decorated gymnast took to Instagram to tell people to back off. "Don't come for me about my hair," the text overlay on her video read. "IT WAS DONE but bus has NO AC & it's like 9,0000 degrees. Oh & a 45 min ride."
"Don't come for me about my hair," she wrote | Image: Simone Biles/Instagram
"Gonna hold your hand when I say this. Next time you wanna comment on a black girls hair. JUST DON'T," she shared.
In case you're slow on the uptake, Simone Biles is golden. Her hair will never be the problem.
Then there was the ex-teammate...
Simone recently shared photos of her with her teammates Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Hezly Rivera and Jade Carey celebrating their win at the gymnastics final. "Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions," read the caption.
This came in response to what Simone's former teammate MyKayla Skinner said after the team won the final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.
In a now-deleted YouTube video, MyKayla said, "Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn¡¯t like what it used to be."
"A lot of girls don¡¯t work as hard," she added. "The girls just don¡¯t have the work ethic."
There was backlash online unsurprisingly and MyKayla apologised saying her comments had been taken out of context.
¡ª MyKayla Skinner (Harmer) (@mykaylaskinner) July 6, 2024
¡°I take full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize,¡± she wrote.
MyKayla and Simone competed together at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics where MyKayla won a silver medal and retired soon after.
Simone got a case of what the professionals call "the twisties" and withdrew after winning two medals.
Simone Biles at the Tokyo Olympics 2020
She quit Tokyo Olympics 2020 after getting a case of "the twisties" | Image: AP
There was a snafu on the floor: she could only do 1.5 twists and not the customary 2.5. She nearly fell after landing. "I don't think you realize how dangerous this is on hard/competitive surface," she wrote in a post online.
After winning two medals, Simone withdrew from the Tokyo Games citing a "medical issue." Later, she revealed she did so for the sake of her mental health and her team.
¡°After the performance I did, I just didn't want to go on," Biles had said, USA TODAY reported. "I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now. We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do. I don't trust myself as much anymore. Maybe it's getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world."
"We're not just athletes. We're people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. I didn't want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. ?I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It's so big, it's the Olympic Games. At the end of the day, we don't want to be carried out of there on a stretcher."
So what are "the twisties?" According to USA TODAY: "Though it¡¯s not a technical medical diagnosis, the twisties refer to the psychological phenomenon a gymnast experiences when they encounter a disconnect between their body and mind while performing skills, like twists, in competition."
This can be especially tricky for a gymnast at the time of flips and twists and can cause injury.
It has been a long journey for the athlete, yips, nips, twisties and all. It has also been a fantastic game for Team USA and her at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Here's to Simone Biles, always shining, always golden.
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Tanya Sirohi is the Trending section lead at Indiatimes. She likes to write on a range of topics including viral stories, UFO sightings and exploring life on Mars.
