Simone Biles is feeling the pressure after a shaky preliminary round at the Olympics. The Olympian admitted that it’s ‘hard’ for to brush off the pressure when she feels like the ‘weight of the world’ is on her shoulders.
Simone Biles, 24, isn’t being shy about how she’s feeling while on the world’s biggest stage. The Olympic gymnast looked ahead to the women’s gymnastics finals at the Tokyo Olympics in a candid Instagram message on July 26. She admitted all the “pressure” isn’t easy for her to ignore.
“It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it,” Simone Biles wrote. “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 also posted a behind-the-scenes photo that showed her speaking with her family virtually during the Olympics. Due to the current COVID-19 situation, spectators are not allowed at the Olympics. This includes family and friends of Olympians.
After Simone posted her message on Instagram, she received thousands of comments. Sasha Farber, who was Simone’s partner on DWTS, wrote, “So proud of you.” DWTS pro Lindsay Arnold commented, “You are incredible… always amazed by you.”
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is currently second to Russia after the preliminary round. Simone went out of bounds during her floor routine and her first vault. However, she still earned 57.731 in the all-around standings.
“I feel we did a pretty good job,” Simone said after Team USA’s stumbles in the qualifying rounds. “Obviously, there are little things we need to work on, so we’ll go back and practice and work on that, just so we can do our best performance at team finals because that’s what matters. We’re really striving for top three.”