SmackDown Women's Champion Bianca Belair recently spoke with ViBe & Wrestling, where she talked about how and why Simone Biles inspired her and that is because Biles put her mental health before anything else, especially her plan of competing at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics.
Bianca Belair said:
“Simone Biles is so inspiring on what she did specially in such a big stage and she allowed herself to be vulnerable and put her mental health before her physical abilities.”
“The message is that athletes are humans and it is so hard mentally and we have to look at her and admire her for what she did – because there are times as athletes, we felt something was not going well but we kept on pushing and it’s ok to put your mental health first.”
Bianca Belair then talked about how her coach from her college did the same thing for her and put her mental health before anything else, which to this day has really helped her.
Bianca Belair said:
“In college I had a coach who did that for me.” “I was struggling so much mentally with depression, anxiety, eating disorders… and he told me: ‘You have to go and talk to a doctor, you are back on track until they clear you’ and he put my mental health first. At that time, I didn’t understand but he helped me so much as a human being and as an athlete too, even to this day.”
Bianca Belair then talked about how she can manage her mental health better nowadays, but it is still a constant struggle for her, so she is surrounding herself with her loved ones, especially fellow WWE Star and her husband, Montez Ford, who has helped her a lot.
Bianca Belair said:
“I know my triggers I know how to manage my mental health better; it’s still a marathon and now for me is just… my husband is helping me so much, even for WrestleMania he was giving me affirmations all throughout the day. Every time I was saying something that sounded that I was doubting myself, or I was scared, he was giving me affirmations.”
“So, surrounding myself with the love of my parents and dealing with like an imposter syndrome because they are telling me all the time: ‘Yes you can do this’ and I say: ‘Do I really can do this?’ ‘Yes of course you can do this’… But Simone Biles inspired me with all she did and any athlete can relate to her and she’s gonna help every athlete in all sports across the board.”
