Relationship Between Failure and Success

Biles seeks to counteract a traditional narrative that characterizes many works about athletes: the concept that failure is purely oppositional to success or that failure derails an athlete’s progress. For Biles, failure is not an end but a means; losing a particular competition is not tantamount to a complete rejection of her effort and talent. Rather, failure is a crucial aspect of training, growth, and ultimate success. Biles emphasizes that she would not be at the level that she is today without the beneficial impact of her previous failures to realign her priorities, increase her focus, and uncover her weakness.

In order to demonstrate the underlying positives associated with failure, Biles clearly delineates the specific effects of two failures she considers fundamental to her ultimate upwards trajectory in gymnastics: missing the 2011 national team by only one place and her disastrous performance at the...