Gold isn't the Goal: Why Simone Biles and Alysa Liu Prove Joy is the Point

I love the Olympics.

My dad loved the Olympics and I grew up living for the every 2 years when we come together as a global community. I love the athletes epic feats of human endurance and the stories of how they got there. I love how social media has given us a glimpse behind the podium to see the heartbreaks, the grueling training schedules, and the failures that led to those 30 seconds or 3 minutes that make or break a medal placement.

2024 and 2026 have been some of my favorite Olympics because they have featured 2 specifically incredible athletes who share a similar inspirational story. One that I hope leads and transforms the Olympics of the future.

Joy.

But before we get to the joy, we have to start in 2020.

Simone Biles broke the internet when she withdrew from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Everyone was talking about her.

Accusing her of failing the US as a country and global representative.

Accusing her of failing her team, her coaches, all gymnasts everywhere.

The commentators were ruthless.

Olympic athletes push through.

They perform.

They owe their country their bodies, their comfort, their mental health.

In boardrooms, in locker rooms, classrooms, and in living rooms, winners sacrifice everything. They grind. They push through. They never stop. They never quit. We celebrate the relentless pursuit of the outcome - the promotion, the record, the gold medal - and we loudly shame anyone who dares to pause, step back, or say "this isn't working for me right now."

But Simone Biles held her ground.

"We have to focus on ourselves, at the end of the day, we're human, too. Put mental health first, because if you don't, then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to." - Simone Biles

"So it's OK sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself — because it shows how strong of a competitor you really are, rather than just battle through it."

That is not the language of someone quitting. That is the language of a leader who has the self-awareness to know when the foundation is cracked and the courage to say so out loud.

A year later, a 16-year-old figure skater named Alysa Liu did something quieter, but equally radical. After competing at the Beijing Olympics, she posted a retirement announcement on Instagram. She had been on skates since she was five years old. Eleven years. Nearly her entire life. And she was done.

Her father, Arthur Liu, described her state of mind: "She became really unhappy. She avoided the ice rink at all costs. She was traumatized and she wouldn't go near the ice rink."

In her own words, Liu was even more direct: "I had my plan: 'I'm just going to go to the Olympics and then quit.' And that's what I did."

Think about what it takes, as a leader, to be that honest. Much less a 16-year-old. To admit not just to yourself, but to the world, that the thing you've built your identity around has become something you dread.

They let their identities burn.

Let them fall away.

Walked away from everything that made sense to the rest of the world and without explaining themselves or point to what they were chasing instead.

They burned it all down.

Nothing to replace it.

Nothing else to look forward to.

They just stood their ground.

And let the rest burn around them.

The Radical Act of Reclaiming Joy

And then?

They didn't grind their way back.

They didn't white-knuckle through a comeback.

They rediscovered why they started in the first place.

Biles spent nearly a year and a half away from the gym, doing the deep mental health work, going to therapy, setting boundaries in her personal life. Her goal was not to return, she was not focused on getting back to the Olympics much less the podium.

She described her return to Paris 2024 not as a redemption tour of proving something to the world, but as something far more personal -she wasn't focused on the end goal, she was celebrating the journey. She was prioritizing joy. She was having fun.

"Whatever happens, happens. But I'm in a good spot mentally and physically, so you can't take that away from me. So whenever I'm out there, it's just pure joy. Can't believe I'm out there again, competing, representing my country, just having fun doing what I love."

Liu wasn't planning on skating again period. She publically claimed retirement. It was a spontaneous skating trip with a friend that reminded her of the joy of skating.

"I hadn't felt that adrenaline rush, I guess, since I'd quit skating. It feels so similar to skiing. And so after I skied, I was like, 'Wait, let me get on the ice and see what it feels like.'"

So she pivoted again. This time - entirely on her own terms - choosing her own music, her own costumes, her own training schedule.

Skating, she said, had become "an outlet — I love dance and music, so it's everything in one."

Joy. Not obligation. Not pressure. Joy.

What Happens When Leaders Choose Authenticity

Yes, Biles won three gold medals in Paris. Yes, Liu won two gold medals in Milan, ending a 24-year American drought in women's figure skating. Yes, the world went wild. But here's what's important: neither of them was skating or flipping for those outcomes.

Simone was exuberant. Her joy was visible. The audience felt the joy, the love of her craft was evident in every movement of her performance. She delivered a phenomenal routine that inspired the audience, no one was stopping to look at the scoreboard. She was beaming when she celebrated the Gold medal winner with a Silver around her neck,

"A couple of years ago I didn’t think I’d be back here at an Olympic game. So competing and then walking away with four medals, I’m not mad about it. I’m pretty proud of myself and it’s always so exciting to compete." - Simone Biles

Liu's performance in 2026 was just as moving. The commentators could not stop gushing about the joy she exuded while gliding across the ice. She finished her gold-medal free skate beaming with two hands in the air from glee, long before her scores were calculated.

She turned to her team and shouted: "That's what I'm f**ing talking about!"*

That is someone who is fully, completely, joyfully present. Not performing for a result. Performing for the love of the thing itself.

Later on the podium with two gold medals around her neck, she said:

"I didn't need an Olympic gold medal to validate my decisions. I just made those decisions because I knew in the moment I had to, no matter what the outcome was."

Olympic gold medalist and gymnast Aly Raisman, watching Liu skate in Milan, put it beautifully: "Alysa is just really breaking down that wall and showing that when you love something and you also love yourself, you have confidence in yourself and conviction and belief in what you're doing - anything is possible. There's so much magic when you listen to an athlete about what feels right for them and you empower them to continue to make those decisions."

The Leadership Lesson for All of Us

Whether you run a company, lead a team, or are simply trying to build a life that means something - Biles and Liu are showing us something profound.

Sustainable excellence doesn't come from relentless pursuit of the outcome at all costs. It comes from doing the work of understanding why you do what you do. It comes from having the courage to be honest and walk away when that why has gone silent. And it comes from the patience to wait - and nurture - until the joy comes back.

The leaders who endure, who truly innovate, who bring out the best in the people around them, are not the ones who grind themselves to dust chasing a destination. They are the ones who are so grounded in their own authenticity, so genuinely lit up by their craft, that excellence becomes almost inevitable - a by-product of being fully alive in what they're doing.

The leaders whose teams excel - they are the teams whose leader allows them to be fully human. Who encourages them to take time off after a month of working overtime to complete a project. Who encourages work-life balance and negotiating schedules to allow for school pick up in the afternoon. Those are the teams that will endure and create sustainable change.

The gold wasn't the goal. The joy was. The gold just followed.

In the end, the gold, the awards, the outcomes, the recognition doesn't matter.

What matters is the journey.

The joy.

Protect,

prioritize

the joy

and let the rest burn.

Sources

• "Alysa Liu won gold her way. That's magic, says Aly Raisman" — olympics.com

• "Simone Biles: I chose 'boundaries' over burnout" — olympics.com

• "Why did Alysa Liu retire?" — sports.yahoo.com

• "Alysa Liu Delivers Strong Message as She Attempts to Win Second Olympic Gold" — newsweek.com

• "Alysa Liu: 'If I Didn't Hit Rock Bottom, I Could Not Have Gone Up'" — rollingstone.com

• "'We're human, too': Simone Biles highlights importance of mental health" — nbcnews.com