Skip to content
Simone Biles

United States artistic gymnast

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness. And I knew that the girls would do an absolutely great job and I didn't want to risk the team a medal for kind of my screw ups because they've worked way too hard for that. So I just decided that those girls need to go in and do the rest of the competition.

Post-competition press conference, Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo Olympics, Rev, 27 July 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 22 →
Peter Doherty Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
On returning to Brisbane, I realised fairly quickly that I am an experimentalist at heart. A career as a diagnostic virologist was not for me!
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography for Les Prix Nobel, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 December 1996 source ↗
Henry R. Kravis Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
And that’s what’s given us the ability to say no. It’s one of the most important things at the end of the day, being able to say no to an investment. Even if you’ve done a lot of work, work will never hurt you.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 12 February 1991 source ↗
Joyce Carol Oates Novelist, short story writer and essayist
I’ve turned down opportunities constantly. I turn down invitations to do things for money. I have almost no interest in making money.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 20 May 1997 source ↗
Lynsey Addario Photojournalist and war photographer; Pulitzer Prize winner, 2009
I think I naturally felt like I needed to pull back, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I decided to get pregnant then because I was 37, and I had Lukas at 38. So I have not been covering combat recently. I haven’t covered combat in a few years. I’ve been in South Sudan. I’ve been under fire. But I’m not like — it’s a very different time, also, in history. … Now I feel like I was very torn about not being in Mosul, but I didn’t go because I felt like it was extremely dangerous, and I just couldn’t do that to my family.
Recorded Academy of Achievement (achievement.org) source ↗

More from Simone Biles

View profile →
Question When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do? Daily life
Yes. Today has been really stressful. We had a workout this morning. It went okay. And then just that five and a half hour wait or something. I was just shaking, could barely nap. I've just never felt like this going into a competition before. And I tried to go out here and have fun. And warm up in the back went a little bit better. But then once I came out here, I was like, "No, mental is not there. So I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself."
Recorded Post-competition press conference, Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Tokyo Olympics, Rev, 27 July 2021 source ↗

More on daily life

Also answered this

Allyson Felix, Adam Peaty, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Peter Doherty, Winston Churchill

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer