Tokyo 2020: Simone Biles withdraws from finals over mental health concern

US gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the final of individual all-around gymnastics due to concerns over her mental health, USA Gymnastics confirmed on Wednesday. If she will compete in individual event finals will be taken after daily evaluation, USA Gymnastics added.

“Simone will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether or not to participate in next week’s event finals,” the statement said.

24-year-old Simone, who is also a 4-time Olympic champion, had qualified for all four event finals that are due next week. She was expected to win the gold medals in at least three of those events.

In the all-around event, Simone was hopeful of repeating her title from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. In 2016, she had become the first woman to win back-to-back titles in the all-round in 53 years.

The gymnastics team from the States won the silver medal in the team finals on Tuesday. Reportedly, she told her coach and team doctor that she could not continue because she was mentally not focused enough to perform her events safely.

During the first event of the night, she got lost in the air and did not know where the body was in relation to the ground. Because of that, she had to perform a much simpler vault which she had planned, New York Times reported.

After some time, she said that as the Olympics began her stress load started increasing. 

Once the team event began, Simone realised that she was not in the right space of mind to continue as she dreaded injuring herself and also did not want her team to face any problems due to her her.

Before the Russian clinched the gold medal, the US team had owned the sport for more than a decade.

Gymnast Jade Carey will be replacing Simone Biles’ in the all-around final.