Simone Biles: Walking The Path The Greatest Of Black Women Leaders Have Walked

Simone, Simone. Ms. Biles. Yes, she is most assuredly the worldwide acknowledged gymnastics GOAT who reinforced that status on July 30 by leading her team to Olympic Gold–again. But as she takes what is likely her final Olympic bows against those bright lights of Paris, she should be revered for far more than her breathtaking mastery of the sport.

Perhaps, most importantly, she has rightfully earned her title by her majestic leadership as a Black woman who is walking courageously along the same path our most beloved sheroes have walked along.

Tokyo was one of Biles greatest feats

In 2020, at the Tokyo Olympics, Simone made the incredibly brave decision to temporarily withdraw from competition. It was her mental health, she told the world and all those Black girls watching. All those Black girls who are going for the gold in their own lives but are also sometimes bereft, lonely, worried about failure, living their own “twisties”– the condition we learned of in 2020 from Biles where gymnasts lose their sense of direction in the air. And Tokyo wasn’t the first time she’d confronted the challenge. 

She had battled with the condition before leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics and during the 2019 season, according to Time, but found a way to push through. Only she and those closest to her know the cost of that decision. But one thing we all is that she refused to make it again–and she refused to hide it.

More, in announcing her temporary withdrawal, Biles could have claimed any reason. She could have said she was physically harmed after her vault that year. She could have used any number of plausible–but false–narratives. But what she did was to demonstrate to young Black women everywhere–to all young women everywhere and older ones too–that there is nothing more gold than our emotional and mental wellness. Without them, everything else is doomed to fall apart.

But Simone embodied the wisdom of the late, great Black feminist lesbian poet, essayist, professor and human rights leader, Audre Lorde, who said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

After Tokyo, Biles co-launched an initiative to bring mental health care to underserved communities, another choice that calls us back to the works and words of Lorde: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

Black women deserve multiple chances in a world that creates multiple harms

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Biles and her siblings were removed from their biological mother Shannon’s care due to her struggles with addiction and inability to care for them.

“I just remember, like, us as kids being so hungry and then I just remember this cat that would get fed and not…us,” Biles told CNN Heroes in 2023 about an early experience in foster care. She continued, “And so we were taken and, thankfully, we actually got to stay in one foster home and we were all together … It was some of the best times ever. We were just so excited.”

Biles and her younger sister Adria were eventually adopted by their grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles, who became their loving parents. She often credits them for the success of her gymnastics career as they enrolled her in classes at a young age, where she showed remarkable athletic prowess. 

“Being separated from my biological mom, being placed in foster care before I officially got adopted by my grandparents, it just set me up for a better route at life,” Biles told fans on an episode of her seven-part Facebook Watch series Simone Vs. Herself. “I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am unless that turning point happened. I would still be Simone Biles, probably not Simone Biles that everybody else knows, the world knows. But I also believe everything happens for a reason and I’m forever grateful for that because I definitely got a second shot at life.” 

 

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. ~ Dr. Maya Angelou

Her too

Like so many other Black women, I knew Simone Biles was my shero for reasons well beyond her mid-air magic. I remember when in 2018, she revealed one of the most painful truths a person can reveal–that she too was a survivor of pedophile and former Olympic doctor, Larry Nasser, who is now in prison for the remainder of his life.

Joining older, former teammates like Aly Raisman, Biles’ 2018 testimony came as she was training for the Tokyo Olympics. Revealing that truth impacted her greatly at a critical moment, as she likely knew it would. But she did it anyway, saying “if she could shine a light” for others, that was what she was going to do no matter the cost, as we witnessed.

For too often, Black women have been expected to stay strong and push through adversity–by everybody. Black women’s pain has been so ignored that we have often ignored it ourselves. Biles, taking lead from incredible women like Tarana Burke who founded the “Me Too” Movement in 2006, showed the world that it had to stop, pay attention and attend to the pain Black women lived with.

And in the tradition of perhaps the greatest Black woman leader of the last 500 years, Harriet Tubman, Simone Biles both knew and saw the “.. tears [others] and [sought to] free them.” 

Feelings… #MeToo pic.twitter.com/ICiu0FCa0n

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) January 15, 2018

According to ESPN, Biles had a therapy session  this Tuesday morning before competition to keep her mind “calm” ahead of the competition. As she prepared for her final vault this year, doubts began to creep in, particularly given her past struggles with “the twisties.”

The most decorated gymnast in human history told ESPN, “After I finished vault, I was really like ‘whew,’ because there were no flashbacks or anything.”

There was only a sense “of relief.”

She’d nailed the landing.

On her own terms.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. Call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected to support in your area. For more help, please visit RAINN here. RAINN is the largest anti-sexual assault organization in the U.S.

 

SHE HAS SPOKEN.

Simone Biles’ Olympic floor routine from the women’s team final is a MUST-WATCH.

#ParisOlympics on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/yxBYAftuF2

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2024

A composite of @Simone_Biles‘ floor routine pic.twitter.com/FD0LGyuG99

— Sportico (@Sportico) July 30, 2024

SEE MORE:

Team USA Names Simone Biles Female Athlete Of The Year

Sing A Black Girl’s Song: Our Girls Are Most At Risk For Suicide, But We Can Help

 

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, Simone Biles embodies the wisdom of the late, great Black Audre Lorde, who said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
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