How the 'twisties' derailed Simone Biles' Olympic record bid
When golfers get the yips they risk a missed putt -- when Simone Biles gets the equivalent in gymnastics, she risks breaking her neck.
The US superstar, 24, blamed "the twisties" for her dramatic exit from the team event at the Tokyo Games, where she was aiming to equal or even surpass the all-time women's gymnastics record of nine Olympic golds.
Biles exploded down the runway for her opening vault in the team final on Tuesday, launching her Tokyo odyssey with an Amanar at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. The skill -- a back handspring onto the vault then two-and-a-half twists in mid-air with a blind landing facing away from the apparatus -- is not for the faint-hearted. It is a fiendishly daring and dangerous move but one she normally executes time and again with pinpont perfection.
On Tuesday, with her diminutive frame shouldering the crushing weight of expectation that comes with being one of the faces of the Games, the "twisties" struck. Losing her sense of spatial awareness, with the real danger of doing herself serious harm, Biles bailed out of the Amanar in mid-air, turning just one-and-a-half times and stumbling on landing.
Fellow gymnasts have described the condition that interrupts normal communications between brain and body.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210729-how-the-twisties-derailed-simone-biles-olympic-record-bid
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