Simone Biles Earns the Gold Medal in Life

As a kid, I used to blow out my birthday candle wishing to be an Olympic swimmer just like Jenny Thompson who was the butterfly champ of the 90s. I taped the Summer Olympics to watch them on repeat. I dreamed of being on a medal podium. I loved watching the Olympics. I still do. It inspired me to work hard, to achieve, and to, unfortunately, become transfixed with outward symbols of success as a youth and into adulthood.

Yet, I now know better. I still respect the gold medal-earning Olympic athletes. But a new type of Olympic hero has emerged too. One my older self knows is worthy of emulating not for what she’s gained in hardware, but in shedding the burden of meeting others’ expectations .

Simone Biles. You have surpassed the glitter of gold in a true act of wisdom and self-knowing. An act of vulnerability. What some may seem as selfish, and still others know to be truly selfless, gracious, and human. So often in our culture, we place pressure and grant immense praise on achievement — on the doing. We laud those that “hustle” and push through. Yet often what we’re hustling for on the deepest level is for love. It’s what I’ve worked my entire life for. Acceptance. Validation. Something that says — you’re enough.

Yet that’s never achievable through outward praise. Never obtained through accolades. The only path to love is the one that you walk on for and with yourself. The inward path. Nobody else, not even a Gold medal, can grant the worthiness we all need to find and feel from within.

It’s what makes Simone’s actions so beautiful. So inspirational. Human. We’ve all just witnessed a woman with so much love for herself that she’s willing to go against what culture has arbitrarily defined as what’s best — a Gold medal at all costs. She’s listened to her own body. Her soul. She’s stepped away to step into herself. And in this case to make way for others. Everyone is talking and she doesn’t care. She doesn’t need other people to feel good. That’s the Olympic-level inspiration we all need.

“These Olympic Games, I wanted it to be about myself,” Biles said, her voice suddenly catching and tears rolling out of her eyes. “And I came in and I felt I was still doing it for other people, and it hurts my heart that doing what I love has been taken away from me to please other people.”