Simone Biles Opens Up About Time Off From Competitive Gymnastics: 'A Break Is Needed'
Biles' book, "Courage to Soar," will be released in November.
— -- Simone Biles said her decision to take a year off from competitive gymnastics is a result of not being able to give it her all after her whirlwind experience of winning five medals, including four golds, at the Rio Olympics.
“To travel and train, there’s just like no way I can do 100 percent so a break is needed,” Biles, 19, said today on “Good Morning America.”
Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts of all time, has hand-sprung into a whirlwind of appearances since her Olympics win. She met Beyonce and Kim Kardashian while presenting at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards and received a raucous homecoming in her hometown of Houston last month.
Biles described the homecoming as “crazy” and said the past few weeks have been like a dream.
“You dream of these things for so long and then it happens and you’re like, ‘Oh, what else do I want now?’” she said.
Up next for Biles is traveling the country with some of her fellow "Final Five" gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic gymnasts for the 2016 Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions, kicking off Sept. 15, in Spokane, Washington.
She will also be writing her first autobiography, “Courage to Soar, which will be released in November.
“I’m super-excited,” Biles said of the book. “It’s just about my life so that they hear it from me.”