Simone Biles, who secured her third gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the vault final, took a moment to address her critics, noting with irony that they are now "very quiet," which she found "strange."

"Negative comments hurt to some extent. They sting, but I'm still in therapy working through all of that to ensure my mental health is good," Biles said after the competition.

"After all these years of mental work, it's been worth it. I'm super excited to be back on this stage," the American added.

Biles, who faced harsh criticism for withdrawing from the Tokyo 2020 Games due to a mental health crisis, asserted that she feels very good at the moment.

"I saw my therapist the other day. We take it day by day to see if I need more therapy while I'm here, but so far everything is going well," she emphasized.

"The Olympics are a very exhausting process for athletes, and there are many days of competition, so you have to keep track of your mental and physical state. As long as we do that, we'll be fine. And so far, I feel good," she noted in a press conference after the final.

"Once we're here, the track is our stage. We feel very free because we are in our element, we have fun, we do what we love," Biles said.