Simone Biles on Showing Mental Health Journey While Filming Netflix Doc: “It Was a Point of Strength”
Simone Biles’ Netflix documentary Simone Biles Rising: Part 2 follows the Olympian’s journey to her 2024 Paris comeback as she overcomes her fears of competing for the first time after dropping out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health.
At the doc’s premiere, the Olympian told The Hollywood Reporter how the process of sharing her struggles with balancing her inner well-being and gymnastics on screen has taught her a lot about herself.
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“I was a lot more stubborn than I thought I was,” Biles said. “And allowing myself to be open and vulnerable taught me the courage.”
Courage that the star said she would get by looking to her family when she was feeling stressed or uncomfortable during the Olympics — an experience she didn’t get at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, which took place in 2021, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“They know that I look at them in the audience to just calm me down, and it’s just a stress reliever for me,” she said during the Q&A portion of the event. “To have this experience in Paris where I could talk to them, go see them… it meant the world to me because again, these are memories we’ll cherish together.”
Biles continued, “It just means everything to me that [husband Jonathan Owens] could show up and support because he also knows that he’s my comfort person. I looked to him even after I had one of the bar mistakes, I just looked at him and he’s like, ‘You’re fine, calm down.’”
Doc director Katie Walsh explained how after spending five years with the athlete on the project, she witnessed how Biles has grown from the first part of documentary, which was released in July.
“She has learned so much about herself and how to take care of her mental health and make sure that she’s always putting herself first,” Walsh said. “It’s a wonderful lesson and a wonderful example for all of us to follow.”
While mental health advocacy has become a part of Biles’ brand through her openness about her struggles with depression, anxiety, “twisties” and panic attacks, she admitted being open about it in Part 2 was a challenge.
“[What I talked about in therapy] was pretty sacred to me because it’s my space and what works for me might not work for other people,” she said. “I also didn’t want to tell just a lot of stuff. These are my secrets. And so I think that was a little bit tough because I also didn’t want people to think that I was really struggling.”
Biles continued, “This was more of a strength thing for me to go in, do my visualizations, just talk to [my therapist for] whatever I needed…it wasn’t at a point of weakness. It was a point of strength.”
Still, the gold medalist encouraged fans to seek out their own help when dealing with personal challenges. “You deserve that help,” she said. “The first step is the hardest, but after that, I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
Simone Biles Rising: Part 2 premieres Friday on Netflix.
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