Simone Biles clinched a bronze medal in women’s balance beam final on Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympics. The American gymnast said she didn’t expect to bag a medal and that was doing it for herself. 

“I’m pretty happy. I wasn’t expecting to medal. I just came out here and tried to do a good beam set,” Biles said in a press conference following her third-place win today. “To have these two next to me. I think they did absolutely amazing. I watched them train so hard so they are definitely deserving of one and two.”

She continued, “Just to have one more opportunity to compete at the Olympics is amazing.”

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The ace gymnast further spoke about her withdrawal from the Olympics earlier and said, “I think it should be talked about a lot more, especially with athletes, because I know some of us are going through the same things and we’re always told to push through it,” she said. “But we’re all a little bit older now and we can kind of speak for ourselves. At the end of the day, we’re not just entertainment, we’re humans and there are things going on behind the scenes that we’re also trying to juggle with as well on top of sports.”

She continued, “I honestly wasn’t even expecting to medal on beam. I just was trying to go out there and hit a good beam set and compete one more time at this Olympic games because I qualified for all five finals, but then I pulled out. So it just sucked. But I was excited to be in the stands and cheering for all of Team USA.”

Simon Biles was in tears during a press conference following the first withdrawal. “Whenever you get in a high stress situation, you kind of freak out,” she said. “I have to focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and well-being.