Olympic champion Simone Biles won’t be participating in the 2020 Olympic gymnastic team finals.
“Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement on July 27.
However, her coach told reporters in Tokyo that the athlete’s withdrawal was the result of a “mental issue.”
Jordan Chiles, 20, has replaced Biles, 24.
Biles said on July 26 that she was preparing for the finals.
“It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it. I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times. I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The Olympics is no joke! BUT I’m happy my family was able to be with me virtually. They mean the world to me!” she wrote on Instagram.
Biles is one of the most talented U.S. gymnasts to compete in the 2020 Olympics. She won four gold medals in the 2016 Olympics and has taken 19 gold medals in World Championships.
Biles has relayed her struggles with depression after being sexually abused by former Team USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
“I denied it and I buried it. And I was very depressed. I never left my room. I was sleeping all the time,” she told YouTube host Priyanka Chopra in 2019.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2017 for sexually assaulting Biles and other gymnasts.
