By Melanie Eversley

Champion gymnast Simone Biles is offering a closer look into why she abruptly decided to drop out of the team finals at the Tokyo Olympics in July. Her decision raised global awareness of mental health issues and prompted fans to applaud her.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Biles explained that her decision was tied to disgraced U.S. team doctor Larry Nassar, now serving a 60-year federal prison sentence for molesting hundreds of female gymnasts.

“I should have quit before Tokyo, when Larry Nassar was in the media for two years,” said Biles, who lives in Houston. “It was too much. But I was not going to let him take something I’ve worked for since I was 6-years-old. I wasn’t going to let him take that joy away from me. So I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.”

She explained she’d been anxious when she arrived in Tokyo, where she was expected to win five medals. Instead, she fumbled repeatedly.

“I was not physically capable,” Biles said. “Every avenue we tried, my body was like, ‘Simone, chill. Sit down. We’re not doing it.’ And I’ve never experienced that.”

The last straw was when she went for a 2.5 flip, but suffered a bout of the “twisties.” That’s when the body loses sense of place. She could only complete a 1.5 flip.

“If that was any other person they would have gone out on a stretcher,” Biles said. “As soon as I landed that vault, I went and told my coach, ‘I cannot continue.’ “

These days, the most decorated Olympian in women’s gymnastics is veering from her tendency to mother everyone else, taking part in therapy, spending time with boyfriend Jonathan Owens, a Houston Texans safety, and practicing more self care, she said.