Simone Biles Talks Getting Through ‘the Traumas and the Downfalls’ in Clip from Her New Netflix Show

On the eve of the Paris Olympics, and amid her comeback to make even more history on the mat, Simone Biles is reminding herself what it takes to win.

In the new Netflix series Simone Biles Rising, premiering July 17, the most decorated gymnast of all time gives a behind-the-scenes look at her life — and how a tattoo has become her mantra

Before I got this tattoo, it was a saying that I loved — obviously, Maya Angelou — and I was like, ‘And still I rise is perfect,’ because I feel like that’s kind of the epitome of my career and my life story,” Biles, 27, says in a clip of the four-part series. “Because I always rise to the occasion and after all of the traumas and downfalls, I’ve always risen.”

The G.O.A.T. is now pushing back on the mental and emotional challenges, especially after pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics after enduring a well-documented case of the “twisties.”

Whenever I first came back to gym, I had to start from the basics,” Biles says about relearning her routines following the Tokyo Games, after the twisties caused her to lose track of where she was in the air.

She continues, “Like when kids come and ask me for advice, when they have a mental block or they’re scared, I’m like, ‘We’ll go all the way down to the basics and then build your way back up.’ ”

The metaphor is not lost on the seven-time Olympic medalist, who became one of a select few to make her third Olympic gymnastics team earlier this month after her triumph at the U.S. Olympic Trials

Every comeback so to say that I’ve had, no matter what happens, I still come back, still try to do everything full force, full difficulty, like even after Tokyo,” Biles says. “Come back, and I’m here, so, still I rise.”

The clip goes in tandem with Netflix’s new trailer for the series, in which Viola Davis narrates a portion of Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise.”

“Did you want to see me broken?” Davis reads. “Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?”

Just like moons and like suns,” Davis continues. “With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.”

Simone Biles Rising: Part 1 (two episodes) premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, July 17. Part 2 is set to premiere in fall 2024.