Maxi Gnauck: Admiration for exceptional athlete Simone Biles

Olympic gymnastics champion Maxi Gnauck admires US superstar Simone Biles. The 27-year-old is an exceptional athlete who has special qualifications, said the multiple world and European champion in an interview with the German Press Agency. "The difficulties she performs with her conditions are breathtaking," said the Berliner, who celebrates her 60th birthday this Thursday (10 October).

Maxi Gnauck was also impressed by the fact that Biles won a bronze medal on the balance beam at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo despite her mental problems and made a brilliant return after a two-year break. "I had hoped that she might start again after all. She did and it was great how she came back," said the 1980 Olympic uneven bars champion. Biles had celebrated a successful international comeback with two titles at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp and won three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Fears accelerate early career end

Maxi Gnauck revealed that she also had to wrestle with mental problems at the end of her career. "I struggled with fear more in the last six months than before. Fear of the elements, of difficult exercises," she reported. In addition to back problems, this fear led to her ending her career earlier than planned. Instead of the 1985 World Championships, she competed in her last competition at the previous European Championships, where she won the uneven bars title, among others.

She would have had to take some time off afterwards and then her preparation for the World Championships would have been too short, said Gnauck, who has worked as a coach in Switzerland for many years. In addition, her relationship with her coach had suffered because she had not trained properly due to her anxiety. "I wouldn't have known how I would have coped with the preparation in such a short time, even with my anxiety," said the last German Olympic gymnastics champion to date.

At that time, people didn't dare to take time out so that they could recover mentally and physically and then perhaps continue gymnastics again with new energy and willpower, said Gnauck. That's why she thinks the development in gymnastics is good, "because you can see that even if you take two years off like Simone Biles, you can still find your way back to the top of the world".