Simone Biles will be living with her withdrawals from the Tokyo Games for life, former Olympian says

• Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier offered support to US gymnast Simone Biles.
• The 24-year-old Biles withdrew from five events at the ongoing Tokyo Games. She returns Tuesday.
• Cormier's support follows criticism from another Olympic wrestler who said she needs "tough love."

Simone Biles, 24, will be living with her withdrawals from the Tokyo Games for life, according to the former Olympic wrestler turned UFC champion Daniel Cormier.

"I've been on a group message with my friends and it's been back and forth, everybody with their opinion," Cormier, 42, told MMA Fighting.

"The reality is the only person that has to deal with the opinion and the fallout of this is Simone Biles."

The most decorated US gymnast of all time, Biles is on the start list for Tuesday's balance beam final - a competition where she won a bronze medal the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

However, she withdrew from five other events citing a severe case of the "twisties," which is where a gymnast's mind and body aren't in sync.

Biles has largely received an outpouring of support. However, a former Olympic champion wrestler from the 2008 Games in Beijing, Henry Cejudo, who also went on to win a UFC championship, said Biles needs "tough love."

He said: "Sometimes we do need a nice kick in the arse."

Cormier, who came fourth in the freestyle wrestling event at 2004 Games, is not so sure.

"In a sport like wrestling, you don't compete it's like you kind of just quit," Cormier said. "But I believe that when you're twisting in the air, right? Like jumping and flying through the air, a mishap is so damaging or could be so damaging, you really have to reconsider."

Cormier said becoming the greatest of all time in a discipline carries tremendous pressure. People may not agree with her decision to pull out of certain events, they may not support her, but it's her who'll be the one affected by it, he said, while everyone else moves on with the news cycle.

"You know who's not moving on? Simone Biles. She gets further and further away from the competition, that decision's going to have to stay with her.

"So we can't judge her decision," Cormier said Sunday. It came before US officials confirmed that Biles would compete in a final event in Tokyo, the last of her Olympic career.

"We're in no position to say she's right or wrong. Because ultimately she's the one that's going to have to live with it long after we've all moved onto the next football season, the next basketball season, the next baseball season, and everything else.

"She'll still deal with her not being mentally in a place where she can compete and that's what it is. I don't have as much of an opinion on it because the reality is it's not my decision."