Simone Biles Reaches Out to Ilia Malinin After Olympics

When Simone Biles watched Ilia Malinin finish outside the medals in men's figure skating last Friday, she didn't see failure. She saw herself at Tokyo 2020, carrying impossible expectations and facing a very public struggle.

"I was really worried about how his mental health was going to be," Biles told Olympics.com on Tuesday in Milano. "I've been through that firsthand and so I really went into protection mode."

Biles knows that weight better than almost anyone. At Tokyo 2020, she arrived as a five-time world all-around champion and defending Olympic gold medalist. When the twisties forced her to step back from most competitions, the world watched her every move.

Her journey back wasn't quick or easy. "I think people have a misconception that I just woke up one day and everything was all fine," she said. It took years of showing up daily, even when traumatic memories replayed in her mind during certain movements.

So when Malinin's performance didn't go as planned at Milano Cortina 2026, Biles acted fast. She wrote him a text with some bullet points and sent her number right away. "It was really heartbreaking," she said.

The two athletes met Tuesday in Milano, where Biles is partnering with Mandarin Oriental to advocate for health and wellness. Her goal was simple: validate what Malinin was feeling and show him a path forward.

"While I was telling him some of what I thought he might be going through or how to move forward from this, he was like, 'Exactly this. Exactly,'" Biles recalled. "He was like, 'You finally just said it.'"

Why This Inspires

That moment of recognition matters deeply. Saying painful truths out loud is hard, especially for athletes who've built their identities around excellence.

But Biles understands that admitting struggle doesn't mean weakness. It means being human under extraordinary pressure. Her own comeback resulted in three golds and one silver at Paris 2024, proof that setbacks don't define your story.

By reaching out to Malinin, she's passing forward what she wished she'd had: someone who truly understands. Someone who can say "I've been there" and mean it completely.

Now Malinin has that person in his corner, and a roadmap for moving forward from one of sport's greatest champions of mental health and resilience.