Simone Biles Gets CANDID About Olympics 'Twisties'

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00:00 I have very good, like, senses,

00:04 and I knew something was gonna go wrong.

00:07 I couldn't pinpoint what it was or when it was gonna happen,

00:10 but I just had this feeling deep down,

00:13 "This is not gonna go the way I want it to."

00:15 [ Siren wails ]

00:18 -Wow.

00:19 -Very uncharacteristic vault for Simone.

00:22 -My teammates are shook.

00:23 They're like, "Are you okay? Are you okay?"

00:25 And I'm trying to convince myself I'm okay,

00:27 so I don't need you asking me if I'm okay.

00:29 Because I'm okay. Listen, I'm okay.

00:31 -We're great. -Like, everything is not okay.

00:34 -Simone reliving her twisties experience

00:37 at the Tokyo Olympics with Alex and what went through her mind

00:39 after landing her vault jump in Tokyo.

00:42 -As soon as I landed, I was like,

00:45 "Oh, America hates me.

00:50 The world is gonna hate me,

00:52 and I can only see what they're saying on Twitter right now."

00:55 That was my first thought.

00:56 "Oh, I thought I was gonna be banned from America."

00:59 I couldn't understand why that happened, either,

01:01 'cause I'm like, "Gymnastics?

01:03 Like, what the heck is going on? Why is this happening?"

01:06 And then my therapist is like, "Well, we know why it happened."

01:10 -Simone tells Alex her Olympic twisties

01:12 were brought on by emotional trauma.

01:14 She was one of hundreds of women who came forward in 2018

01:16 as sexual abuse victims of ex-USA gymnastics doctor

01:20 Larry Nassar.

01:21 -Compressing all of this [bleep] for so many years,

01:24 it just unfolded. -Right.

01:26 -Like, you can't -- You can't compress trauma.

01:28 -How did processing this trauma show up in your day-to-day life?

01:33 -Well, at that point, I was diagnosed

01:36 with depression and anxiety.

01:40 It felt like I held a lot of the guilt

01:41 that wasn't mine to hold,

01:43 and I learned through therapy, like,

01:45 "Yes, this is not my guilt to hold,"

01:47 but to convince myself that is really, really hard,

01:51 and I think I'm still working on that in therapy.

01:54 Like, it's gotten a lot better.

01:55 -Simone opened up to Alex on many topics,

01:58 including entering foster care at the age of 3

02:01 and being adopted by her grandparents at 6.

02:04 It's about the same time she began her gymnastics journey,

02:06 which was all so consuming,

02:08 she admits she missed out on a lot.

02:10 -Did you get to have any, like, typical teenage experiences?

02:13 Like, did you go to prom? -None. None.

02:15 The first time I danced with a boy

02:17 was on "Dancing with the Stars" with Sasha,

02:19 and it was after the Olympics. I was, like, 19 years old.

02:21 I remember he, like, got in my face, grabbed me,

02:23 and I was like, "Aah!" Like, freaking out.

02:26 Talk about, like, a culture shock.

02:29 ♪♪

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