Khorkina: Simone is not a robot, she’s human

In the past, Svetlana Khorkina has been extremely critical of Simone Biles multiple times and even accused her of doping. However, it appears that Biles withdrawing from the team and all-around final made Khorkina reevaluate her position and she was extremely gracious and understanding when asked to explain what happened. In an interview with RT, Khorkina talked about how scary gymnastics can be and how mental pressure can break the strongest gymnasts.

Q: The withdrawal of the four-time Olympics champion and five-time World AA champion Simone Biles from the team and all-around finals became the biggest gymnastics news in Tokyo. Do you understand what happened to her?

A: I think I do. Simone is currently number one in the world. By the Tokyo Games, she started upgrading the routines that were already hardly possible for anyone else. In other words, Biles has been at the top alone for a long time, because other gymnasts have no chance of getting close to her. But at the same time she’s just as human as we are.

Q: Do you want to say that Simone did not have enough mental capacity left?

A: First of all, she was under major pressure of responsibility and all the attention. I’ve seen all her pre-Olympic videos when Simone was invited everywhere. I’ve been in such situations as well – I was constantly reproached for getting distracted from the training and told that was why I was making mistakes. But when you’re over 20, you can’t be constantly focused on just gymnastics. You need to try something new and show not just your athletic side, while staying at the top. The time doesn’t stand still. New champions come, past ones get forgotten, but you want to stay interesting to the public. But that’s not the only issue. Biles truly demonstrated incredible difficulty in her routines, just out of this world. I think that her issue was technical first of all, and not mental. It happens. My good friend and a very good gymnast who I won’t name here even retired because of this issue. We won Olympic team silver in Atlanta together and a year later she said: “That’s it, Sveta, I’m retiring because I’ve got the twisties. I’m not ready to endanger my life.” I have to say that I understand her – artistic gymnastics is not just doing roll-outs on the floor.

Q: Do you think Biles got the twisties?

A: Yes, on twisting elements. I’ve rewatched the team final – the moment when Simone does vault – many times. She definitely got lost in the air and it’s terribly dangerous. Very fortunately, Biles is so physically strong and well coordinated that she landed on her feet.

Q: In my experience, I know that the twisties never happen suddenly, something always happens first.

A: There was something. At some point, I noticed that Biles first started doing her new vault quite successfully but then she got some issues and never did it again. So, you could see that the girl had something go wrong even though she kept being perfect on the events at all the pre-Olympic competitions. I’ll repeat, Simone is not a robot, she’s human. People started putting gold medals on her in advance in all the Olympic finals at once. You have to know how to handle such pressure.

Q: It’s like you’re talking about yourself now.

A: Partially, yes. I’ve been in her shoes as well. You’re scared to tell someone about your problems because they’ll see it as weakness. On one hand, of course, it was a mistake to go out to compete in the team final. It would have been best to withdraw from it right away if Simone felt something was wrong. On the other hand, she made a completely correct decision when she refused to continue. If Biles started falling on the rest of the events, the US team could have finished out of medals.

Q: Then the question is for the US coaches. Why would they put the team leader on the competition floor in such a state?

A: Perhaps, they were sure that Simone is capable of handling anything. But I have to say that the US team made a very competent decision now. Simone was withdrawn from the all-around final where she was potentially supposed to win gold and they are still preparing her for event finals. As far as I know, she hasn’t yet withdrawn from those. I think that the Americans are creating a scenario where Biles will become the hero of these Games in any case. Although it’s a pity she won’t be in the all-around. Some will definitely think that it plays into the hands of other competitors, including Russians, but personally, I always loved competing with truly strong gymnasts. When the level of the opponents is lower, the victory is not as sweet.

Q: I’m afraid that many will now say that Russia only won the team final in Tokyo because of Biles’s absence.

A: That was partially true. But they also had to use the opportunity they got and it’s not as easy as it seems. Our gymnasts were right to seize that opportunity. Although the Chinese team had the same chances to win. I don’t understand what happened to them at all. The Olympic Games are a terrible competition in that sense. I liked how Vlada Urazova said in an interview: “I’m talented, that’s why I won”. She has the right character – competitively bold, bitchy in a good way, and has her own opinions. She won’t miss her opportunity. By the way, my long-time dream has come true thanks to the girls. I wanted Russia to win team gold at the Olympics someday and it finally happened. The other dream is for our gymnast to win gold in the all-around. There are all the chances for this now.

Q: Do you think Biles will be able to come back to her previous level or things are heading towards retirement?

A: It’s a difficult question. This is a serious case of the twisties. I’m afraid that Simone will always have a subconscious fear that the issue will come back at the most important moment. Will she get through it – I don’t know. I have doubts about it.

Q: Have you ever had the twisties?

A: Fortunately, no. Once, I had an unpleasant situation when I went for a vault unfocused and also got slightly lost in the air. I got seriously scared then. But I was working with a very good coach who developed the technique so perfectly that I could never had the twisties. Boris Vasilyevich watched for any deviations carefully and corrected them right away. It’s a very lengthy process. Our sport is not the easiest in that sense – the more twists you do, the more twisted your head gets. You could say that Biles got trapped by her own talent. Everything was very easy for her since childhood because of her natural talent. That’s why she started learning the most difficult elements right away and her mind has been focused on the maximum difficulty for many years. Now it got twisted but the option to roll back and replace the difficult element with something simpler is just not there. Biles just doesn’t have that option. But a gymnast should always have it. Same as nervousness. If you have it, it’s kind of a guarantee that you will not miss anything important on the competition floor. It’s not just about extremely difficult elements – you can do a triple salto well and make a mistake on a roll-out.

Q: A well-known sports doctor Nikolai Durmanov suggested that Biles could just break down due to the most terrible mental and physical exploitation of her.

A: I can believe it. I’m on vacation in Italy right now and the media here, after Simone’s withdrawal, started remembering all the sex scandals in American gymnastics in the last years. That’s all they talk about on TV. So that definitely could have affected her.

Q: Let’s talk about something nicer. What did you feel after the mens’ team and all-around finals?

A: Nikita Nagorny’s bronze in the all-around final was a very good, solid bronze medal with a golden undertone. Everything was a very respectable and beautiful, like it should be with an Olympic champion. Artur Dalaloyan did a good job as well. I’m really happy for the men, I’m terribly proud of them. We’ve been waiting for that team for a long time and it’s been slowly forming since the Doha World Championships. I had an opportunity to talk to the guys there and I remember how we sat at the pool, sunbathed, and talked. About the sport, about life. Then I understood that our guys are not just responsible and sensible but also have good goals. They know why they are in gymnastics. Talking about the competition, I started thinking deeply after watching what’s going on in Tokyo that artistic gymnastics came close to a serious turning point. The difficulty is beyond the limits already. The Japanese are doing quadruple twists. It’s not just the minds that can’t handle it but also Achilleses are torn, both lower and upper limbs get broken. Here are Biles’s problems and Dalaloyan’s injury. Plus the physical stress at competitions is collossal, especially for the guys. Nagorny has been doing all-around for three days – qualification, team final, all-around final…

Q: The men’s team competition with the incredible victory by Russia made me think that we unnecessarily undervalue the team medals. It’s actually the most important medal at the Games.

A: I completely agree. It’s not even because fighting for your team is a very special feeling. When there are Olympic champions on the team, this affects judges as well. Although Nikita Nagorny could have been judged less strictly in the all-around final.

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