Katie Walsh got the opportunity of a lifetime: following Simone Biles throughout the Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old gymnast was making her return to the grand stage after she was forced to miss several Olympic events in 2021 due to experiencing the “twisties.” She won just one medal in Tokyo, a bronze.
The pressure was on in Paris, but Walsh, the director of “Simone Biles: Rising” on Netflix, said she was “calm, cool and collected.”
“But I’m sure she was feeling the pressure,” Walsh said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. “I think it would be impossible not to. As much as she does her very best, and has done a really good job of managing all of the outside expectations and sort of tasks on her, she’s still the face of the Olympics and everyone was there to see her compete and everyone was there to just see her, period.”
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Simone Biles of the United States smiles during the national anthem with her gold medal during the medal ceremony for the vault on the first day of gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Bercy Arena in Paris on Aug. 3, 2024. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
Biles got her revenge, taking home three golds and a silver in Paris. Of course, she won four golds in Rio in 2016 and failed to medal in a fifth event in Paris. All in all, Walsh said she considered it a very successful Olympics.
“She had said to me, I mean, we as the outsiders put all these expectations for her to just win everything all the time. But for her, I know team and all around were so important, that was what she was really focused on. And that was where she really wanted those. So I don’t think there was even an iota of disappointment in her medal count,” Walsh says.
Walsh got to see it all up close and personal. She has known Biles for roughly five years, covering her in both competition and practices. This, though, was a different animal.
When asked what it was like to see Biles in competition mode, Walsh put it bluntly: “It’s awesome.”
“I think that the beauty of our relationship is that she feels comfortable to be who she is in whatever moment. So, we were with her as she was getting ready her final moments in a hotel room before she was leaving to go compete, and the tension, it was very tense… And I am so grateful that she let us in for those moments, because those are hard moments to allow just other people into your space, and she did. We were able to just be there, and it’s never a negative thing with her. She’s just sometimes really serious and really intense because she’s about to compete.
FILE – Simone Biles of the United States holds up her medals after the women’s artistic gymnastics individual apparatus finals at Bercy Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
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“I could really just marvel in what she’s able to do when you’re really up close, and you see how high and how fast and how tight she spins, I mean, it’s like you’re like, yeah, no I definitely cannot do that.”
While Biles may not be like many in terms of celebrity or athletic status, Walsh wants to tell people she is still human.
“I think the end goal is to relate to her and when you see someone of her caliber competing and succeeding, in the way that she does, it’s hard to connect with that because there’s nobody else that can do it. She’s all on her own in that category,” Walsh said. “But I think when you’re watching the film, you get a better understanding of the person and the human, not the super human. And, once you get to know her a little bit, you realize that she is normal in many ways.
Gold medalist Simone Biles of Team United States poses on the podium during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s All-Around Final medal ceremony on day six of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Bercy Arena on Aug. 1, 2024 in Paris. (Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images)
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“She still has her own struggles. and those struggles are real and very relatable. Because there’s something that most of us go through at some point… and I think getting to know her as the person allows you to appreciate what she does on the floor so much more, because it just makes it so much more special and unique and just miraculous. I mean, she’s able to do it under so much pressure, and with so many eyes on her and the expectations that are there, not just for her as an athlete. But for her as a spokesperson and an activist. So it really just makes what she does even more great.”
The first part of the series was released in July; part two comes out Friday.
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