Simone Biles Rising chronicles the return of the athlete considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games following her withdrawal from the competition in Tokyo four years earlier. It’s a triumphant tale of athleticism, discipline and resilience that results in Biles doing exactly what she set out to do — win gold medals in the team final and all-around final — but as director Katie Walsh and her production crew documented what Biles dubbed her “redemption tour” in real time, they had no clue how things would turn out.

“It’s making a movie when you don’t know the ending,” says Walsh, who also directed the 2021 Facebook Watch docuseries Simone vs Herself. “Going into that series, the expectation was that she was going to win all the things and retire, and there was a really hard left turn toward the end. In the months that followed the Tokyo Games, I thought, there’s no way she’s going to walk away at this point because, as a professional athlete who’s so in control of her physical abilities, that wasn’t on her terms. So I was here and always ready if she decided, but it was totally up to her whether she would come back and then whether she would make a film about her comeback.”

Biles’ decision to let cameras capture her professional rebound was particularly personal given the backlash she faced at the 2020 Games, held in July and August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when she withdrew from competition as a result of the “twisties,” a phenomenon in which psychological issues impair an athlete’s physical ability to execute moves.

“Going into the Paris Olympic Games, I felt it was the right time to share my story in a deeper, more vulnerable way,” Biles, 28, tells THR via email. “Regardless of the outcome, I wanted to document this part of my journey — not just for the world but for myself and my family so I could look back on the experience without regret. Together with the amazing crew led by Katie Walsh, I said if we’re going to do this, we’re going all in. I didn’t want to leave anything on the table.”

The four-part Netflix series, released in two parts pre- and post-Paris, is a buffet of insights into Biles’ world as the first gymnast to compete in three consecutive Olympic Games in 48 years and the harsh global landscape of female gymnastics, from ageism and abuse to racial prejudices and startlingly high injury rates. Biles’ experience as a Black gymnast and one of the 156 women who in 2018 came forward with accusations of sexual abuse against disgraced former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar serves as the catalyst for those discussions, which are buoyed by insights from past U.S. medalists, like Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu and Betty Okino, and Romanian child prodigy Nadia Comaneci, who in 1976 became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic history at the age of 14.

“One of the things we decided was that any conversations we were going to have around mental health, around Tokyo, around Larry Nassar, about being a survivor, we would do that in the offseason to give [Simone] space to work through those conversations and make sure that she was OK and strong mentally,” Walsh explains. “We worked with her personal therapist to make sure that she had a therapy appointment the day after our appointment or the day before our appointment, just to make sure that we were always putting her mental health and her overall well-being as a person first.”

The lighter moments in the doc come via Biles’ time with her family, which now includes Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens, whom Biles married in 2023. The series opens with the pair walking the construction site of what she says will be their forever home as they share their love story.

“Jonathan’s such a great guy and he’s such a wonderful support for Simone,” says Walsh. “They connect on not just a level of two human beings but two professional athletes. They speak the same language that way, and it’s really clear that his support has been so wonderful for her. It’s another way that she achieves a little more balance in her life, which is hard to do when you’re so focused on one goal.”

In addition to a scene in the doc in which Biles reads some of the negative reactions to her Tokyo withdrawal, the couple also addresses the social media backlash they faced following a 2023 interview on the podcast The Pivot in which Owens claimed he didn’t know who Biles was when they first connected online.

“He’s had to deal with the criticism, too, because there’s lots of people that want to stand up for Simone and want to make decisions on what he’s saying and make and pass judgments. He’s really levelheaded and good about handling that,” adds Walsh.

Audiences get a glimpse of the peace Owens provides for Biles in episode three as he compliments her hair when she begins to fuss about flyaways. It’s a mere casualty of her pre-competition nerves, which in the final episode prove to be all for naught when she nabs the team and all-around gold despite a calf injury that threatened another potentially disappointing outcome.

The victorious ending of the movie now established, Walsh and her crew began the herculean task of piecing together the final two episodes. “We were editing while we were in Paris. I would be filming stuff and then we’d be sending it overnight to our editors. They’d be working on it, and I’d be getting cuts back. It was very much a living, breathing process, and we didn’t take our foot off the gas pedal for a little while even after coming back, which I think was probably for the best because we were on such a high from that Olympic experience,” says Walsh. “Even from a journalism perspective, it’s just such an adrenaline rush.”

For Biles, the win off the mat was having a film that honestly captures all of who she is. “Letting the cameras into my life while I competed on the world’s biggest stage allowed people to see the real me,” she says. “Most people know me as Simone Biles the athlete, but I wanted people to understand me on a more human and personal level. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for the sport — to be relatable both in my triumphs and struggles.

“For me, redemption wasn’t just about proving something to the world. It was about reclaiming my strength and my voice,” adds Biles. “Looking back on my journey, through all the ups and downs, I’m incredibly proud of how open and honest I’ve been with myself and with others. I’ve continued to grow, both physically and mentally, and most importantly, I’ve learned to advocate for myself every step of the way.”

This story first appeared in a May stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.