Simone Biles Says It Was ‘Important’ for Her to Stand Up for Her Teammates (Exclusive)

Biles tells PEOPLE that she’s been steadfast in championing herself and her fellow U.S. women’s gymnasts as team lead during the Paris Games

Julie Mazziotta is the Senior Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes.

Simone Biles (center) and her teammates, from left: Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey and Suni Lee. Photo:  

Simone Biles is confident in herself and her power — it’s been part of her whole journey these Games.

And it’s why she’s felt comfortable using her voice to stand up for herself and for her teammates while the entire world watches.

“It’s important because you have to teach them to use their voices,” Biles, 27, tells PEOPLE on Aug. 6, the day after she concluded the 2024 Paris Olympics with four more medals. “And if not, you’re a voice for the voiceless, which is okay.”

Biles takes her role as “team lead” seriously, she says.

“I just felt like it was right in that moment to stand up for them, because they’re so young and they haven’t fully stood in their power yet,” the champion gymnast — America’s most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time — says.

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That moment came earlier in the Games, when Biles seemingly clapped back at former teammate Mykayla Skinner for comments she made criticizing the “talent” of the gymnasts on this year’s Team USA roster: Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera. After the “Golden Girls” won gold in the team final, Biles posted a photo with the caption, “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.”

Later, Biles and Chiles revealed that Skinner had seemingly blocked Biles on Instagram. (On Tuesday, Skinner — who had previously apologized for her comments — said she was “heartbroken” over Biles’ caption and said that she’d been receiving “another wave of hateful comments” in the wake.)

Biles tells PEOPLE that “for somebody to stand up, I know it meant a lot for [my teammates].”

In general, this entire Olympic experience has been a 180 for Biles since the 2020 Games in Tokyo. As Paris draws to a close for her now, Biles says she’s “so much more relieved, so much more at a better spot, mentally and physically, just happy with overall what I’ve been able to accomplish and what I’ve done.”

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As she has throughout her time in Paris, Biles quickly points to the importance of therapy in staging this comeback following a bout with the debilitating “twisties” in Japan.

“Putting in that therapy and that mental work meant everything to me and it was much needed,” she tells PEOPLE.

It’s similar to what Biles said after winning all-around gold on Aug. 2, highlighting that she attends therapy every week and had continued it while in Europe. “Even this morning at 7 a.m. I saw my therapist and there’s a time change,” Biles told reporters during a post-event press conference. “So she is so amazing for allowing me to do that these couple of days in Paris.”

“I never thought I’d be on the world stage, again, competing,” said Biles.

“Everybody knows Simone’s story, right?” her mom Nellie Biles 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. 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.”