Simone Biles opens up on Mikaela Shiffrin support during Beijing 2022 - 'I didn't want her to feel alone'

Simone Biles says she reached out to fellow Olympic gold medallist Mikaela Shiffrin during Beijing 2022 as she “didn’t want her to feel alone”. Biles and Shiffrin connected during the Games last year where Shiffrin shared some of the negative comments she had received on social media after missing out on a medal. Ad Just months earlier, Biles had withdrawn from several finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to focus on her mental health.

Alpine SkiingWhen will Shiffrin break Stenmark’s alpine skiing World Cup record?27/02/2023 AT 13:05 «I saw the experience that Mikaela went through and I had just gone through that, so I didn't want her to feel alone and [I was] like, 'Hey, it's OK. This stuff happens. You're still amazing, who cares about the comments?'» Biles said of her decision to message Shiffrin during a Laureus Sports Instagram live ahead of International Women's Day.

«Half of the time, the comments are people at home that have never even done a sport or gotten an award so they don't realise how hard we work, and like Mikaela said, they only tune in every four years, so they don't see all the hard work that goes beyond that. “You don't understand how hurtful it is already to feel like I've failed myself, then you have the weight of the world, everybody, telling you failed and all of this stuff. So, I just didn't want her to feel alone.

»For me, I had a similar experience before with the comments and stuff like that, but my decision was to pull out of the Olympics, so I know how hurtful it is and how much it just kind of sucks. “You work your whole entire life and the Olympics only happens every four years and if you get to go to more than one, then you have double the luck. «I've been in those positions, and yeah, a