Reigning United States gymnastics champ Simone Biles announced earlier this week that she would pull out of the all-around Olympic gymnastics competition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to focus on her mental health — and Quebec athletes have shown her an outpouring of love and support since.
Biles, 24, said in a July 27 press conference that she didn't want to "risk the team a medal" due to her mental health.
Oliver Bone, a Montreal-based sailor competing at the Tokyo Games, crowned Biles "a legend" in a July 29 Instagram story, using the hashtag #mentalhealthmatters.
Quebec's Minister of Education and Minister Responsible for the Status of Women Isabelle Charest tweeted, "When I was an Olympian, it would have been unthinkable to withdraw from a competition for a mental injury. The culture of sport is changing for the better!"
Charest was an Olympic speedskater before becoming a member of the national assembly.
Two Team Canada weightlifters — Rimouski's very own Olympic gold medalist Maude Charron and Montreal's Kristel Ngarlem — supported Biles by reposting a photo of her with the text "Athletes are humans first" as Instagram stories.
Biles responded to the world's support in an Instagram post on July 28.
