As Simone Biles prepares to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, viewers can follow her post-Tokyo Olympics comeback journey in Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles: Rising,” which director Katie Walsh describes as a window into the “inside world” of the G.O.A.T.
“Simone is so popular and viewed so much in the public eye that sometimes the way the outside world perceives her, and the way she’s experiencing her world, don’t always align,” Walsh told TheWrap. “I wanted to provide a window into more of that inside world — what her experience is like … she’s a human being just like the rest of us, and she has her good days and bad days.”
From Biles’ candid reaction just moments after withdrawing from the Tokyo Games to her first times back in the gym, the Religion of Sports-produced docuseries goes behind-the-scenes as Biles recovered from the mental duress of the 2020/21 Olympics and decided to put her hat in the ring for 2024. In addition to her athletic journey, “Simone Biles: Rising” spotlights Biles in other parts of her life, including her personal relationships with her family and husband, in an effort to “showcase her as a human being, and not just an athlete.”
“That’s a very big part of her life — the athletic component of her day — but it’s not all she is,” Walsh said. “This was an opportunity to show a little more of the other sides of Simone.”
The first two episodes, now streaming on Netflix, touch on everything from institutional racism and sexism within gymnastics to how Biles’ was impacted by the Larry Nassar abuse case. The second half of “Simone Biles: Rising” is still in the making — the last two episodes will follow Biles through her victorious Olympic trials and her experience at the 2024 Paris Games, set to debut sometime this fall.
“That’s part of the excitement of this, is that we don’t know the ending,” Walsh said. “We’ll be with her throughout the games, and it’s awesome to be able to have access to her and spend time with her in this window of her life that’s in technicolor.”
Below, Walsh walks us through how she approached telling Biles’ story and how the Olympian is feeling ahead of the Paris Olympics.
TheWrap: How did you go about tackling so many topics in a succinct series?
Katie Walsh: The way I look at all of the different conversations that we open the door for in the series is how they relate and contextualize Simone and her experience. We begin in Tokyo, which obviously, is a real springboard into the series and a big part of her reason for coming back.
What happened in Tokyo is obviously out of her control, and not the way that she would have chosen it to go had she been able to make that choice herself. We start there — we try to give a better understanding of what took place, why it happened. And, as the series goes on, we start to peel the layers back on Simone — why the different components of her life experiences make her who she is today, and also how those different life experiences were a part of what ultimately took place in Tokyo.
This series provides so much context on Simone’s struggles in Toyko. How do you hope the series corrects anyone who judged her and opens people’s eyes to mental health struggles?
She has been so open and honest with what she experiences, and I give her a lot of credit for being able to take us along on that journey. She’s the first one to say it’s not an open-and-shut case where you’re suddenly healed, and everything’s better. It’s a process.
It makes her so relatable for everyone else — we can’t relate to her gymnastics on the floor, because none of us can do it. She’s the only one. But we can certainly all relate to what it means to have anxiety or mental health challenges. I think that’s where someone becomes the human being, and not just the athlete.
One thing that was striking was how much COVID and lack of connection with family and fans played into Simone’s difficulty. Why was that something you wanted to emphasize in this series?
Simone has this amazing support system, and you begin to understand why that support system is so important to her. Because of some of the childhood experiences she had — being in foster care, having a period of time where things were very unsteady and unpredictable — is only more reason to understand why having that steady support system has always bolstered her up and helped her to be her best on the competition floor. That was one of the big challenges of Tokyo — not being able to have her parents there, who had been there for every competition for 20 years up until that point.
The series also discusses Kerri Strug’s struggles and features Betty Kino and Dominique Davies sharing their experiences as Black gymnasts years ago. How does this institutional background and those issues play a part in understanding Simone’s story?
Everything is connected. What happened in the past in gymnastics affects how people are in the present. Simone shined the light on how those institutions could change. By being who she is, and living the truest form of herself, she has challenged many of those institutions. That has really pushed the sport in a much more positive direction.
The series also discusses Simone’s identity as a survivor and the fallout from the Larry Nassar cases. Was Simone hesitant to discuss the abuse and the mark it left?
She has been so open and gracious with her time and her energy. Conversations like that are really hard to have — from my experience working with many of the survivors in the Nassar case, it can be really draining and tiring.
It wasn’t so much about what we talked about, it was about when we would do it. We’re grateful that we have almost a year to film with Simone, and so we tried to time certain conversations in a way that it wasn’t interfering with her competitive season, or this time right now, that’s so intense.
There was nothing that was off-limits. We wanted to tell these stories in a way that contextualizes her experience today and keep us rooted in the present and how these past moments have built her into the person she is, and being a survivor is a big part of her story.
The series features a video from Simone moments after dropping out of Tokyo, well before this show was in the works. How did that footage come together?
That’s the beauty of working with someone on and off for five years, is that we have this history, we have time that we spent together. Those personal videos she made during the Tokyo Olympics, that was something that she did on her own and sent to me, and I’m so grateful that she took the time to do that during what was a really tumultuous, stressful time in her life.
Looking back now, I think it’s a great window into the humanity of that experience for her. I hope that everyone that sees that has a chance to sympathize.
How is she feeling ahead of the Paris Olympics?
She’s doing great. This is a really intense stressful time, and there’s no way to get around that, but she’s managing it really well and she’s really prioritizing her mental health and doing her best to control her environment, control her gymnastics and work within what happening around her and stay in the moment. She has so many more tools in her toolbox this time around to help her get through this experience, and it shows in her gymnastics. I’m just so excited for her and whatever happens in Paris, it’s the getting there.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Simone Biles: Rising” Episodes 1-2 are now streaming on Netflix, with the subsequent two parts debuting this fall.
