How Simone Biles moved mental health discussion forward in gymnastics

Jordan Chiles is often, what the kids say, “a mood.” Her personality is evident in her gymnastics and everything she does around it. Moments after she made her second Olympic squad following U.S. gymnastics trials in June, Chiles was asked how she is able to “bring her whole self” to gymnastics. She gestured to her friend and teammate who stood feet away. 

“I honestly think it’s because of this one right here,” Chiles said, pointing to Simone Biles, who was recording all of it for her personal iPhone archives. “She has honestly put me in a position to understand what it’s like to be an athlete in your sport and also a person as well … I give thanks to this one right here (Biles), because I wouldn’t be in this position right now.”

In a matter of four minutes in this post-trials interview, Chiles was the second member of the team to display relatable vulnerability. Reigning all-around Olympic champion Suni Lee broke down as she addressed the crowd inside Target Center. Lee was diagnosed with a kidney disease that ended her college career at Auburn and cast doubt over making it to the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

“A year ago, I didn’t even think this was p-,” Lee said, unable to complete the sentence. She sobbed. She composed herself and finished her thought. A raucous applause for the local hero followed.

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For Chiles, the death of her grandfather and aunt in 2023 has been an emotional weight in the journey to her second Games. 

On the biggest stage before Paris, neither of Biles’ teammates shied away from peeling back the curtain of their mental state. Their stories were their armor. 

In Chiles’ own words: “Because of this one.” 

Because of Biles.

How Simone Biles pushed mental health conversation forward

Three years removed from the “twisties” that impacted her Tokyo performance, Biles has championed mental health to the point of calling her weekly therapy sessions “religious.” 

“Tokyo gave us the opportunity to open up that stage for that talk,” Biles said at trials. “And so I think now athletes are a little bit more in tune, and we trust what our gut is saying and just taking mental health a little bit more serious.”

Biles’ impact on how mental health is viewed within her own team is undeniable. 

“We are all so focused on our mental health right now because that’s basically the sport of gymnastics,” Lee said.

Lee added: “Being able to lean on my coaches and my teammates … we’ve all gotten so much closer to where we can talk about anything and everything. And it’s really helpful when we’re out there.” 

Ten years ago, the machismo within sporting culture – vulnerability seen as weakness, asking for help means conceding defeat – created a stigma and forced athletes to keep mental health concerns secret, said Dr. Victor Hong, the University of Michigan’s medical director of psychiatric emergency services and the psychiatric lead for the school’s athletic department.

But a wave of acceptance and changing attitudes had been building in the years leading up to Biles’ own struggles. 

NBA forward Kevin Love was one of the first prominent athletes to discuss his problems with anxiety and panic attacks. Michael Phelps followed. Shortly before Biles’s twisties struck, tennis player Naomi Osaka centered the issues Black women face as it relates to mental health. “There was a sort of dam that broke,” Hong told USA TODAY Sports.

“Every time a high-profile athlete comes and speaks about mental health and performance and sports psychology, that helps to decrease stigma,” said Dr. Edson Filho, associate professor of sport, exercise and performance psychology at Boston University who also directs the Performance, Recovery & Optimization (PRO) Lab.

Filho said two types of stigma exist within mental health: social – how we think we are perceived by others – and personal – the expectation an individual places on him- or herself. Both types have been reduced over the years. 

“It has to do with people with high-profile people speaking about it,” Filho told USA TODAY Sports.  

But there is something specific about Biles, Hong said. African Americans are less likely to seek help for mental health issues for many reasons, among them the disparities in health care for Black people in the United States, Hong said. They are also less-represented in the medical field. 

“For a lot of reasons, she stands out,” Hong said. “But I don’t think she’s been the sole reason why there’s been this increase in an openness to talk about it.”

More people feel more comfortable speaking about mental health in the wake of her experience, though, and that’s a good thing, Filho said. That’s also due to the impact of research and the work of scholars and experts. 

“I think it’s good timing for that, because the mind and body connection, people have been talking about for many years,” Filho said. “When high-performing athletes and artists and influential people talk about it, that opens the door for more discussion, more work on the ground, more research and so forth.” 

The NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB, for example, mandate all teams retain an on-staff psychologist or counselor and a contracted psychiatrist for further evaluation and possible medication 

“Not expecting the problem to happen,” Filho said, “but frontloading with interventions.

“Challenges come to everybody. Nobody gets a free ride in life or in sports.”  

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Since the Tokyo Games, Hong said, there has been progression toward overall de-stigmatization. “I think we are on a pretty good trajectory,’ he said. Backlash still exists, however, and has grown uglier alongside the “anti-woke” political shift; Biles and Osaka both received scores of negative online messages for removing themselves from competition to take care of their mental state.

“Anything having to do with vulnerability — quote unquote weakness, quote unquote femininity — you can see in our culture that there’s a big backlash against that,” Hong said. “Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, I think it would be unreasonable for people not to notice that, and I do think mental health gets lumped into there.

“I don’t know if it’s that people always felt that way or are feeling more emboldened to speak up.” 

The goal – for athletes and mental health professionals alike – is to one day treat mental health like any form of physical treatment an athlete undergoes to be at their best. A torn ligament can keep an athlete sidelined for nearly a year. 

“Sometimes people have a major depressive episode and they have to go out for six months – treat it the same,” Hong said. “But we’re not there yet, obviously.”