Simone Biles realized she was mentally ‘not there’ at the Olympics, prompting her exit from the team all-around final

• Simone Biles pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics women's gymnastics team final after one event.
• She confirmed during a press conference that mental health concerns prompted her withdrawal.
• Biles said she was mentally "not there" on Tuesday but will "hopefully" be ready for Thursday's event.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Simone Biles pulled out of her first Tokyo Olympic medal event due to mental health concerns.

After an uncharacteristically lackluster performance during her first event of the women's gymnastics team all-around final, the Team USA superstar and the most accomplished gymnast in the history of her sport stepped out of the gym with a trainer.

She came back and put on warm-up attire, and shortly thereafter, the NBC broadcasters covering the event live announced that she would not continue in Team USA's bid to earn a third straight gold medal in the group competition.

But what viewers didn't see was the lead-up to the big event. Biles said in a press conference following Team USA's silver-medal finish that she had endured a "really stressful" day, complete with a morning workout and more than five hours of waiting.

She was shaking, presumably from anxiety, as the minutes ticked by. She said she had "never felt like this before."

"It's been really stressful this Olympic games... it's been a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year," Biles said, per ESPN's Michele Steele. "I think we're a little too stressed out - we should be out here having fun and that's just not the case."

"Once I came out here, I was like, no the mental is not there," she added. "I had to let the girls do it."

Considering the circumstances, Biles' Team USA counterparts - Jordan Chiles, Sunisa "Suni" Lee, and Grace McCallum - performed remarkably well. They challenged the Russian Olympic Committee for the top spot even without their not-so-secret weapon, but ultimately brought home silver.

To Biles, it was no surprise that the trio was able to rise to the occasion.

"I knew they were going to be just fine," Biles said. "Emotions were all over the place, but look, they did it without me and they're Olympic silver medalists."

"I felt like it would be better [for me] to take a back seat," she added. "I didn't want to risk the team a medal because they worked way too hard for my screw ups."

Biles said she will "hopefully" be well enough to compete in her next event. She doesn't seem to be rushing into a decision, though, as she said "we'll see" about defending her title at Thursday's individual all-around final.

Check out Steele's Twitter thread below for more of Biles' comments:

-Michele Steele (@MicheleSteele) July 27, 2021