Simone Biles has opened up about the family tragedy that prompted her to take a mental health break from the Olympics.
The gymnast, 24, won the bronze medal for balance on Tuesday, August 3, despite suffering from a mental health crisis that led to a case of the "twisties", per New York Post.
She withdrew from the first three apparatus finals today before defending her bronze medal on the beam, and she has now explained how difficult this decision was to reporters.
"It wasn't easy pulling out of all those competitions," Biles said, per The Guardian. "People just thought it was easy, but I physically and mentally was not in the right headspace and I didn't want to jeopardize my health and my safety because, at the end of the day, it's not worth it."
"My mental and physical health is above all medals that I could ever win. So to be clear, to do beam, which I didn't think I was going to be, just meant the world to be back out there. And I wasn't expecting to walk away with the medal. I was just going out there doing this for me."
The athlete said that she pulled out because her aunt on her father's side "unexpectedly passed."
"That was another one, I was like, 'Oh my God. This week needs to be over,'" the athlete's coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi told People. "I asked her what do you need."
"And she said, 'I just need some time.' I said, 'You call me, text me if you need anything I'll be here. Whatever that is.' She called her parents. She said, 'There's nothing I can do from over here. So I'm just going to finish my week and when I get home we'll deal with it.'"
New York Post reports that gymnasts suffer from what's known as twisties when they experience a lack of air awareness.
Biles explained that she was only cleared to compete on the beam after she was evaluated by Team USA's training staff as it required minimal twisting compared to other events.
The athlete went on to obtain a solid 14.000 score, which placed her third behind China's 1-2 finish in Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing.
"To go out there and compete one more time and have everybody's support meant the world," she said.
Biles also opened up about the importance of putting her mental health first, saying: "I think it should be talked about a lot more, especially with athletes, because I know some of us are going through the same things and we're always told to push through it. But we're all a little bit older now and we can kind of speak for ourselves.
"At the end of the day, we're not just entertainment, we're humans and there are things going on behind the scenes that we're also trying to juggle with as well on top of sports."