SIMONE Biles says she feels like the "weight of the world" is on her shoulders after the US women's gymnastics team's lackluster performance over the weekend.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist, 24, took to Instagram on Monday to admit that the pressure to perform at the Tokyo Games is at times too much to bear after Team USA finished behind Russia in Sunday's qualifiers.
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"It wasn’t an easy day or my best but I got through it. I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times," Biles wrote.
"I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The Olympics is no joke!
"BUT I’m happy my family was able to be with me virtually. They meant the world to me."
Accompanying the post was a selfie of Biles with a monitor in the background, showing her parents cheering her on back in the United States.
'THERE'S THINGS WE NEED TO WORK ON'
The Spring, Texas native still topped the rankings in the vault and in the all-around competition but came third in the balance beam, second in the floor routine, and eighth overall in the uneven bars.
Biles suffered uncharacteristic errors during the vault and floor exercises.
She fell all the way off the mat following a tumbling pass on the floor and also stepped outside of the lines on her first vault.
“I feel we did a pretty good job," Biles told reporters afterward.
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"Obviously there are little things we need to work on, so we’ll go back and practice and work on that, just so we can do our best performance at team finals, because that’s what matters."
Despite the disappointing runout, Biles will still be in contention for the major events and will have play a big part in determining where Team USA finishes.
Ahead of the Games, Biles was favorite to bring home five golds to add to her tally from the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Team USA has won the team event at every Olympics and world championship since 2011, however, Russia gave them cause for concern on Sunday.
Russia is competing at this year's Games as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), because the country was stripped of its flag and anthem for widespread doping offenses.
'THIS IS NOT THE FINALS'
Russia hasn't won the women's team event since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when they competed as part of the United Team. They have finished in second at the last two Olympics.
USA Gymnastics high-performance coordinator Tom Forster has warned not to look too much into Sunday's disappointing display, insisting Biles and her teammates, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum will be ready when medals are on the line.
"This is not the finals, this is getting into the finals," Forster said. "Sometimes, just like in any other sport, great athletes drop the ball in the end-zone or a quarterback throws an interception.
"It happens," he added.
The US finished the qualifying round in second place behind the ROC with a total score of 170.562. The ROC finished with 171.629.
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In third was China, who finished almost five points adrift from the ROC.
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Both China and France are tipped to be in the thick of the medal fight when the team finals begin on Tuesday.
Belgium and Britain will also be vying for a place on the podium.
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