Milan (Italy) (AFP) – Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles has revealed that she reached out to offer support to US figure skater Ilia Malinin after witnessing his heartbreaking Olympic collapse at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games. Biles was in the stands at the Milano Ice Skating Arena when fellow American Malinin, the hot favourite, tumbled from first place after the men’s short programme to finish eighth.
“I was really worried about how his mental health was going to be,” Biles told Olympics.com. “When you’re expected to skate a performance of your lifetime and you don’t deliver, I worry how that affects his mental and how the world is going to view that. I’ve been through that firsthand and so I really went into protection mode.” Biles suffered a similar fate when she arrived as favourite at the Tokyo Games in 2021, having won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Games. But she suffered the “twisties” — a mental block triggered by stress or anxiety — and withdrew from events to prioritise her mental health. Following Tokyo, Biles stepped away, and returned to win three golds and one silver medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
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“It was a process of a couple of years,” the 28-year-old said. “I think people have a misconception that I just woke up one day and everything was all fine and done. But it was a combination of going every day, grinding in and out of the gym.”
So watching two-time world champion Malinin fall to his first defeat in over two years, she responded without hesitation. “It was really heartbreaking,” she said. “I did a couple bullet points and just sent it to him right away so he knew that he had support in a different aspect.” On Tuesday, the pair met in Milan.
“Seeing someone and talking to someone that has gone through the same thing and validating that…he’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, this is exactly how I feel. This is how to get over it or process it.'” And so I think that was really, hopefully, helpful to him.”
© 2024 AFP
