For Simone Biles, the 2024 Paris Olympics was just another dance on the grandest stage. Instead, it was the moment to shine and prove that whatever happened three years ago couldn’t define her mettle. The 27-year-old gymnast had to withdraw from the finals of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics thanks to her mental duress, which has since become one of the most seminal moments of her life and career. Her ordeal was so significant that her family members also felt its tremors despite being thousands of miles away from Simone.

The Houston native’s sister Adria appeared for an interview recently where she talked about how Simone’s twisties were a fateful experience for the entire Biles family. In the video uploaded on YouTube on August 28, Adria also revealed why the Tokyo Olympics felt like a nerve-wracking experience from the beginning.

“That was the first time um that my parents hadn’t been able to watch her in person and that was really hard for me,” Adira said. She also explained that the whole incident made her squeamish from the get-go. “I just had bad vibes. Like I was just weirded out,” Simone’s sister confessed. In Tokyo, despite having a smooth sail throughout the tournament, Simone had to pull out of the finals after she felt uneasy going on the vault: which is considered one of her strongest suites. And yet, while the gymnast was battling her demons in the Land of the Rising Sun, Adria could share the feeling from halfway around the world.

“It was 5:00 a.m. and I had work at like 7:00 a.m. And she was competing and it was when she did her vault and I don’t know what happened, but she had the twisties and I like woke up, and I was like something’s wrong. Like it was the weirdest feeling,” Adria said in the interview with Chris Osmond. She elaborated that even though they aren’t twins Simone and Adria share a sort of connection that can erase all the time and distance between them when something goes south.

“I walked into the living room and like my family was watching on the couch and then the phone rings and I picked up the phone, and it was my sister,” said the Olympian’s sister on how the family learned that Simone would be pulling out of the tournament. However, while her harrowing experience was certainly unnerving, it looks like Adria’s sister has managed to put the entire thing behind her.

Simone Biles walked through mountains to get back on her feet

“I thought I was going to be banned from America,” Simone said about her experience in Tokyo and how the fans reacted to her decision to step down from the final. But Biles wasn’t one to let the moment be the highlight of her career.

After a brief hiatus from gymnastics following the Tokyo setback, Simone returned to action at the 2023 US Classic. Immediately, it was evident, that her tryst with the twisties made her even more determined to prove her worth to her peers. At the tournament, Simone bagged her seventh US All-Around title and silenced the critics who posited that Biles was running out of steam. So began her journey through rough terrains but the country’s most decorated gymnast of all time was also up for the challenge. Ahead of this year’s Paris Games, Biles steadily found the ground under her feet once again as she won all competitions in 2024 including the Core Hydration US Classic, the Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships, and the US Olympic Team Trials.

Naturally, fans once again braced themselves for an epic showdown as Biles led Team USA’s gymnastics contingent in the City of Love, and she reclaimed her throne with gusto. Bagging three gold and one silver, Simone made an emphatic return on the greatest stage and compensated for her fumble from three years ago with style. Her husband Jonathan Owens and other family members also made sure to catch their flights to Paris to supply Simone with all the cheering and motivation that she lacked last time.

How fulfilling was seeing Simone get back on the top of her game upon the biggest stage of them all? Tell us with a comment!