Simone Biles revealed she experienced a serious medical emergency this week that required hospitalization, describing the incident as one of the most frightening moments of her life.
The seven-time Olympic champion shared details of the health scare on Instagram Saturday, posting a photo of her wrist adorned with multiple hospital bracelets. "Almost dying wasn't on my bingo card earlier this week," she wrote in the post.
The 29-year-old characterized the experience as particularly harrowing given the timing and her circumstances. Her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, was away attending training camp with the Indianapolis Colts when the medical emergency occurred, leaving Biles to navigate the crisis without his immediate support.
"This was one of, if not the scariest experience of my life," Biles wrote, adding that she spent the week recovering in bed. She indicated she would provide additional details about what happened at a later time, but stopped short of explaining the nature of the medical event in her initial disclosure.
Biles expressed gratitude to her inner circle for their support during the ordeal. "Shout-out to my close circle who reached out, checked in, visited + or sent flowers," she noted in the post.
The health incident comes as Biles has previously spoken about the physical toll that elite gymnastics has extracted from her body over decades of competition. In an interview last year, she described a moment during the 2024 Olympics when her body "literally collapsed" after returning to the Olympic village. She was ill for ten days following that incident and has experienced recurring aches and pains even during routine activities like sprinting with friends.
Biles has been candid about valuing her privacy in recent years while managing the demands of her athletic career and public profile. Her decision to share details of this particular health scare underscores its severity and the toll it took on her.
Author James Rodriguez: "When an athlete of Biles' stature and resilience describes something as 'almost dying' and one of her scariest moments, you have to take it seriously, even if the full story hasn't emerged yet."
Comments