After what she describes as a “unique” Olympic experience and a grueling extra year of training due to the pandemic, Simone Biles remains uncertain about what will come in her competitive gymnastics career and a possible bid for the Paris Games. 2024.
But it’s more than fine with that.
Instead, he has enjoyed his long-awaited free time with his family and friends, preparing for the upcoming “Gold Over America” tour and working on a number of companies with his sponsors, including his own collection of NFT (non-expendable tokens) with Autograph which will be released on Monday.
“[I’ve been] relaxing, re-establishing, working on these new projects, “Biles said.” I’ve been to the gym a bit here and there to train, but not too much. Just take time off, enjoy life. “
Any workout, right now, has been casual.
“[I’m] still very undecided [about returning to full-time training]”, Said Biles.” The biggest workout I’m thinking about right now is the tour, as it doesn’t just come out [an] Olympic year, but one more year, since we had to train for five years, something totally unplanned, your body is beating. So we try to recover from that and do a tour. “
Biles, 24, won a silver medal with the American team and a bronze in the beam at the Tokyo Olympics. An overwhelming favorite to defend her 2016 Olympic title, she retired in the middle of the team competition citing her mental health, and then retired from all individual events to balance.
Competing in a routine with a lower than normal degree of difficulty at Beam, Biles received a standing ovation from the people in attendance and received messages of support from fans and colleagues around the world.
“I definitely felt that love and that support,” Biles said. “So I couldn’t ask for anything else because I didn’t expect it. I really didn’t know what to expect [ahead of the beam final], but just feeling the love and the support and having everyone rooted for me, after everything that had happened and not the way I planned, was so good to see. ”
Biles said the Games were not what he expected, but remains grateful for the overwhelming encouragement he received.
He even received an “exciting” text message from tennis star Naomi Osaka, the four-time main champion who sparked an ongoing conversation about mental health earlier this summer, to which Biles admits he still has to answer.
“I’m so bad at texting,” Biles said. “But she’s inspired me in so many ways more than being dominant recently. I know she knows exactly how it felt, so it’s nice to relate to someone at such a high level.”
It was Osaka’s involvement with Autograph and NFT that made Biles more enthusiastic about the partnership. Biles hopes his collection will be sold out in a few minutes, as Osaka did.
He will then focus his attention on the tour, which includes many of his Olympic teammates, as well as other elite and NCAA sports stars. The tour begins Sept. 21 in Tucson, Arizona.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing and meeting all the fans,” Biles said. “We’re going to 35 cities and that’s always super exciting to see and perform in front of fans, especially without having people in Tokyo. It’s always a lot of fun, especially if we have days off and we can explore and we’re like a family, so it’s very good continue this journey and have a little party in the United States “