Simone Biles wins bronze medal days after withdrawal from two Tokyo Olympics 2021 events

American gymnast Simone Biles on Tuesday won a bronze medal for her country while competing in the women's balance beam final at the Tokyo Olympics. This comes days after Biles announced her shocking withdrawal from the Artistic Gymnastics team event and individual all-round final due to mental health issues. Biles' availability for the women's balance team final was under the cloud until the USA Gymnastics confirmed her participation on Monday. 

Biles returned to compete in the Tokyo Olympics once again after her sudden withdrawal, this time winning bronze in the balance beam final. Biles won her seventh Olympic medal in gymnastics, making her only the second American gymnast to achieve the feat after Shannon Miller. Biles registered a score of 14.0 to win the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. China's Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing won the gold and silver medals respectively as they registered scores of 14.666 and 14.233. 

'I have to focus on mental health'

After withdrawing from the team event final last Tuesday, Biles had revealed the difficulties she was facing with her mental health. Biles said, "After the performance, I put in, I just didn’t want to continue. I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in the sport right now… we need to protect our mind and body and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do. I don’t trust myself so much… maybe it’s getting old.” 

Biles had won a silver medal while competing in the women's artistic team final earlier last week. However, the 24-year-old announced her withdrawal after the event, claiming she was suffering from twisties, a term used in gymnastics to refer to the mental block that hampers the coordination between the body and the mind. Biles maiden Olympic appearance for the USA was at the 2016 Rio Olympics where she went onto win five medals which were four gold and one bronze. 

Image: USAGym/Twitter