Simone Biles’ Aunt Died Unexpectedly During Her Difficult Time At The Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics will be an olympics to forget for Simone Biles. It’s been nightmarish in a lot of ways. You all know she removed herself from basically all competition after hitting a mental block.

She could not perform stunts in the air because she’d get lost and couldn’t find a way to land, which could be extremely dangerous.

The 24-year-old superstar did return for the final event, the balance beam final, on Tuesday night. She ended up winning the bronze medal, so she’ll at least return home with something, but it’s all bittersweet.

On Tuesday, Simone’s coach Cecil Canqueteau-Landi told reporters that Simone’s aunt had died unexpectedly this past week…

I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This week needs to be over,’ I asked [Simone] what do you need. And she said, ‘I just need some time.’ I said, ‘You call me, text me if you need anything I’ll be here. Whatever that is.’ She called her parents. She said, ‘There’s nothing I can do from over here. So I’m just going to finish my week and when I get home we’ll deal with it.’

It’s been such a difficult past 10 days for Simone. She’s had so much success throughout her career, we can only hope she doesn’t let this be her memory of it all.

For what it’s worth, her coach Landi was a former gymnast who competed in the 1996 Olympics for France. She told the media that she could not imagine having the guts to pull out of competition to focus on her mental health.

I don’t think I would have had the guts to say I’m not okay. I think I would have probably just crashed somewhere, and probably injured myself. I think for me, she’s the first one at a meet at the biggest stage, to say ‘I’m not okay.’ A lot of people don’t understand it, but we do.

I don’t think I would have [imagined], no. I never would have imagined someone saying it, but I know I would have not said a word. I would have just pretended to be okay, and keep going and probably not end well.

These are different times. Some will say this new generation is “soft,” but I don’t know. It’s not like the previous generations created all these delightfully happy and well- adjusted people. They all pushed it down and became bitter/miserable in old age. Is that really any better?