GOAT – The Greatest of all Time
“Goat, The Greatest of all Time”, it is called. Even a Twitter emoji is dedicated to the best gymnast in history. An athlete who shows maximum difficulties to perfection with unbelievable certainty.
27 WM-Medals and four Olympic gold medals was won by Simone Biles. Four elements are named after her because she did them first. On the floor in Tokyo, she shows two screw somersaults that no other gymnast has mastered. Impressive.
But: something is different. The magic is missing, the perfection is missing. Simone Biles doesn’t look disappointed after her unaccustomed stumble from the floor. More like baffled. There are still a few minor blunders. A weaker day of the superstar. But she still has first place after the all-around qualification and participation in all equipment finals in the bag.
Blockage – Nothing works anymore
Nobody in the excited media gallery suspects what will happen a few days later: In the team competition, Simone Biles drops out after a mistake on the first jump. Nothing works anymore. “I’ve trained all my life, I was physically ready, I felt good – and then everything got out of control”she says later.
A blockage. Simon Biles can no longer turn around the longitudinal axis without losing his orientation. What she normally masters to perfection suddenly no longer works.
For the first time – and at the Olympics of all places – it reached its limits. “I wasn’t having fun anymore”, explains the 24-year-old: “I wanted to enjoy these Olympics for myself, but felt that I had to work for everyone else. It hurt my soul.”
Man instead of machine
Simone Biles is a fighter – always has been. As the daughter of a drug addict mother, she grew up with a foster family. She has worked hard for years for her dream of elite gymnastics, is the victim of gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar im US-american abuse scandal. In the past few years she has struggled with motivation problems. And then her aunt dies shortly before the Olympics. Too much of. Even for a fighter.
When nothing works in Tokyo anymore, Simone Biles is not hiding. She accompanies her teammates through the team final, cheers, comforts them in the event of mistakes and is the first to congratulate the Russians who can beat the favored US-Americans without biles.
Simone Biles makes her mental health problems public. Vulnerable woman instead of gymnastics machine. She renounces the individual all-around competition and three out of four device finals.