Simone Biles has won a record-breaking 37 Olympic and World Championship medals. She can do a roundoff onto a springboard, followed by a back handspring onto a vault and finishing with a piked double backflip (I can barely even write that sentence, imagine actually doing it!). She’s appeared on the cover of American Vogue. She even has a gymnastics move named after her. In short, she’s one of the most prolific and impressive athletes in the world. 

So it was a shock when she withdrew from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo after experiencing “the twisties” – when a gymnast loses awareness of their body midair and which can have very dangerous and damaging results.

Now, on the eve of the Paris Olympics, an intimate new Netflix documentary series explores her comeback and also give a glimpse into the personal life of one of the world’s most renowned athletes.

What is Simone Biles Rising about?

The four-part series follows as the 4ft8in Olympian prepares for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris after withdrawing from Tokyo 2020. 

It shows Biles candidly discussing her mental health, the trolling she endured after walking away from the Games and the hardcore training she’s going through to rebuild her gymnastic skills. We also hear from her family and loved ones including her husband, the NFL player Jonathan Owens, and her grandmother Nellie. It’s a chance for Biles to share her side of the story, after years of being speculated about. As Simone says, “I get to write my own ending.”

Biles isn’t the first sportsperson to step out of a competition to protect her mental health. In 2020, tennis player Naomi Osaka made the decision to withdraw from the French Open, for mental health reasons. Her own documentary series Naomi Osaka is a fascinating exploration into her life and mind, so we expect Simone Biles Rising to be just as insightful and compelling. 

The documentary includes an intimate look at some of Biles’ toughest moments. For one thing, we learn that her parents are actually her biological grandparents who adopted her because of her biological mother, Shannon’s, history of substance abuse.

The documentary also gives us a peek into Biles’ mental health struggles following the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics as the Nassar scandal unfolded. The US Gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, was accused of seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography, and Biles began to realise she too had been abused. “Trauma manifests and presents itself in different ways depending on the person,” says Biles in the documentary. “You never know how you’re going to react when you start talking about that stuff.”

We then see Biles’ struggle with the “twisties,” a condition caused by nerves that causes a disconnect between the body and the brain, which eventually led to her pulling out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “I felt like I was in jail in my own brain and body,” she said.

When can I watch Simone Biles Rising? 

The documentary came out on Netflix on 17 July.

Images: Netflix