“I could give it a try,” Nellie Biles says as she reaches for strands of her daughter’s hair, debating if she should do one or two braids. “Or you can just do one at the top,” suggests record-setting gymnast Simone Biles. As Nellie smooths and pulls her daughter’s hair into a top and bottom braid that meet at the center of her ponytail, the two could be any mother and daughter on any day of the week anywhere in the world.
But the four-part Netflix docuseries, “Simone Biles Rising,” imbues the moment with meaning. Simone is preparing for her first competition in two years — the 2023 World championships of Artistic Gymnastics in Antwerp, Belgium — or, as Simone refers to it, the “mini-Olympics,” which will be her first time competing on the international stage since withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
For Nellie, it’s the first time she’s been able to see her daughter compete in an international competition in four years since family members were not allowed to attend the Tokyo games because of COVID-19 protocols. “Tokyo was the one time I did not braid Simone’s hair. She is an adult. I mean, this girl can braid her hair, but it’s not about her braiding her hair. It’s that bonding. It’s that not saying much. It’s the touch. That’s what doing her hair means,” says Nellie, a pillar of Simone’s support system.
Katie Walsh, the director of “Simone Biles Rising,” was intentional about highlighting small, quiet moments like this in the series. “You can relate to those more human sides to her, and that’s what I really wanted to show through in the film,” Walsh says.
Whether it’s hair braiding, backyard ping-pong, or breakfast in the kitchen with husband and Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, the two episodes that have been released in this four-part series give viewers a glimpse of Simone’s life outside the gym. While many moments aren’t that different from some of the videos or pictures Simone posts on her social media accounts, their effect in the documentary is to humanize the athlete and tell her comeback story. Ultimately, the documentary frames itself as a way for Simone to regain control over her narrative after enduring an agonizingly public mental health crisis that she refers to as her “global meltdown.”
“I get to write my own ending,” Biles says in the opening of the docuseries of her unexpected return to the sport and earning her spot on the US Olympic gymnastics team for Paris 2024. Even the title — “Simone Biles Rising” — is an allusion to the powerful Maya Angelou poem, “Still I Rise,” which Viola Davis reads in the trailer for the season, and a line of which Simone shows the camera she has tattooed under her collarbone (and sometimes printed on the back of her leotard).
It’s easy to qualify the documentary in this light. It’s easy to digest it as the story of Simone rising as she fights to overcome the “twisties” — a condition in which gymnasts lose the connection between their mind and body, and get lost in space — and compete again. It’s easy to see how this comeback story is made more meaningful because it’s contextualized within the grueling (and borderline abusive) practices of former Olympic coach Martha Karolyi at the now-closed Karolyi Ranch, the early childhood trauma Simone endured before she was adopted by her maternal grandparents, the later sexual abuse inflicted upon hundreds of girls by team doctor Larry Nassar, the unrealistic beauty standards of the sport, and the pressure of both traditional and social media.
The mental health implications of these events are far-reaching in Simone’s story, and while Simone’s bravery in advocating for her mental health and determination to return to gymnastics is inspiring, it’s too easy to let it overshadow the larger story being woven about elite athletics.
Because of Simone’s prominence, especially in the lead up to another Olympic Games, it’s easy to forget that “Simone Biles Rising” is just one docuseries among a growing number. From Netflix’s 2020 documentary “Athlete A” which details how the toxic and abusive culture of USA Gymnastics enabled Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse to the streamer’s new series “Sprint” about the world’s best sprinters fighting to claim the title of fastest man and woman in the world, there are several recent behind-the-scenes documentaries showing the grit it takes for athletes to compete at the highest level under unimaginable pressure.
It’s easy to get lost in an athlete’s quest to push the bounds of their humanity. It’s easy to root for the flag wrapped around shoulders and the medal placed around a neck. It’s harder to step back and question the price of this ultra-competitive culture of elite sports, and the way an unending, unforgiving news cycle and the proliferation of social media have contributed to the pressures athletes face.
By framing Simone’s accomplishments within this context of constant commentary — both in the traditional media like morning shows and news articles and in social media formats like videos, tweets and comment sections — “Simone Biles Rising” shows the way everything from her mental health to hair is constantly under scrutiny and snowballs into its own uncontrollable narrative. She’s simultaneously trying to write her own story in the gym, to work hard and perform well, and ultimately, to “not die” while showcasing skills no other female gymnast on earth has ever accomplished.
“People just, like, put you on these pedestals. You know, I’m just, like, begging to just be human,” Simone says at one point in the documentary.
And she is. Yes, she can execute a Yurchenko double pike vault, now dubbed the Biles II, but she is still a daughter letting her mother braid her hair. And while Walsh can show this to viewers, we must pay attention.
Hopefully, if we do, behind-the-scenes docuseries like “Simone Biles Rising” can be more than the telling of a comeback story. They can weave a larger cultural narrative that offers athletes the grace of remembering that they are still people. This is especially important as the world prepares for the summer Olympics ― and athletes, including Simone, will be under a microscope.
Hopefully, the first two episodes in this four-part series (the last two will be released after Paris), can counter the pressure of the media and the weight of the medals, and remind all of us that athletes are still human even though they push the boundaries of what humans can do.
“Simone Biles Rising” Parts I and II are available on Netflix. Parts III and IV air after Summer Olympics.
