Simone Biles is opening up about the future of her career in gymnastics, People reports. The 25-year-old gold medalist was profiled by USA Today for its Women of the Year issue, during which she shared that while she has no regrets and feels like she’s “peaked” in her career, she may not be done just yet.
“Technically, if you would ask anybody in the U.S. that looks at an American gymnast, I’m probably already aged out, but I really feel like leading up to Tokyo, I was hitting my prime,” she explained to USA Today. “Truly, I thought in 2016, at 19 years old, I had peaked. And whenever I came back to the sport, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get even better than I was because somebody told me that was the best I was going to get.'”
Biles continues, explaining that you have to keep the haters at bay and continue on your path.
“You just have to push out those negative views and just keep pushing. I want to see how much I’m capable of, how talented I can be,” she said. “And that’s why I came back, just to not have any regrets if I look back in 10 years. So now I can really say I have no regrets, but maybe I might push it a little bit more to see.”
As Blavity previously reported, Biles shocked the world in 2021 when she decided to withdraw from some of the events during the Tokyo Olympics. She was met with some harsh criticism online, but she said she’s proud of the decision she made for herself and how it’s positively impacted others.
“Honestly, last year was a crazy year,” she shared. “But I think pushing mental health to the forefront was a huge thing. I honestly didn’t realize in that moment the impact that it would have.”
She went on to say that many people online and in person have told her how she helped them open up about their mental health.
“They thank me for my efforts because before that, they only ever said, ‘Congratulations and thank you for gymnastics.’ But now with mental health being a huge topic that we talk about basically on the daily now, they’re always telling me, ‘Thank you so much. You’ve done so much for me and my family, my friends. Now I’m going to go get help,'” she said.
Biles’ year off comes after she went public about the sexual abuse she endured by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, People reports. It was a harrowing time for Biles, who testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee along with former teammates Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, BBC reports.
According to USA Today, as the Olympian figures out what she wants to do next, she’s looking forward to some “personal time.”
