Nellie Biles tells PEOPLE that the family has been “elated” about the 11-time Olympic medalist’s success at the Paris Summer Games
Nellie Biles says she and her family are ready to toast Simone Biles’ success at the Paris Summer Games during a dinner cruise on Monday, Aug. 5. But at the same time, the legendary gymnast’s mom is looking back and giving thanks for an unfortunate chapter in her daughter’s career.
“Tokyo was a little different, but as a family, we all sit back and we talk about Tokyo, and [the] reason for everything, and Tokyo happened the way it did,” Nellie tells PEOPLE exclusively about Biles’ bout with the twisties. “If Tokyo didn’t happen the way it did, there probably would not have been a Paris.”
And what a Paris Games it has been for Simone, who led Team USA to an all-around gold and then picked up two other gold medals in the women’s all-around and the individual vault competitions. On Monday, the 27-year-old G.O.A.T. also earned a silver medal in the individual floor exercise, bowing to Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade by just .033 points.
Nellie reveals she and her husband, Ron, as well as other members of the Biles family have only seen Simone once since the Olympics began — after the all-around team final on Aug. 1 — but they are gearing up for a joyful celebration on Tuesday, Aug. 6 when they will finally be able to catch up with the now-11-time Olympic medalist.
For Nellie, the moment will be a tribute to her daughter being able to conquer her mental health struggles, and all that she has fought for the last three years since having to pull out of the competition in Tokyo.
“It’s just been an unbelievable week,” Nellie tells PEOPLE. “I know we came here with our own expectations. The expectation was, we do want her to medal, but not putting any stipulations on what medals that she will get.”
In addition to the family’s plans on the Seine river in Paris, the “elated” mom says they will “find somewhere to sit and drink, of course, and we just talk and talk and relive the whole thing. It’s just great.”
She continues, “Mental health is so, so important — [Simone] is back doing the things that she loves, but she is in a definitely better place.”
While Simone’s future on the mat is undetermined, for the time being, her mom believes she stuck the landing, so to speak. “Everybody knows Simone’s story, right?” she says. “All those times were really dark and stressful times. To work through that and be in this place where she enjoys doing what she wants, and she is handling her sport the way she would have liked to four years ago and that never happened.”
Nellie adds, “But this is rewriting her story, and I think it’s great. It’s rewriting it on her terms because she is in this place that she really perhaps wished she would have been for years.”
