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Simone Biles should have little left to prove. The most decorated gymnast in history, the American already has a haul of 37 World and Olympic medals in her collection, 27 of them glittering gold. For nearly a decade, the 27-year-old has been the standout figure in her sport, her name and reputation evidence of excellence, Biles cutting through culturally as one of the world’s most popular and prominent athletes.
But Biles will head to her third Olympics at Paris 2024 with a few bad memories to banish. After a remarkable debut in Rio brought four gold medals to establish herself as gymnastics’ ruling queen, her career nearly came crashing down entirely in Tokyo three years ago.
The problems began on her opening day of competition. Performing the all-around during qualification, Biles made a number of uncharacteristic errors, almost coming a cropper on both the vault and the balance beam. Such is her ability that the Texan still managed to make all of the individual finals but something was clearly wrong.
On social media, Biles suggested that she was feeling “the weight of the world on [her] shoulders” — and worse was yet to come. The infamous ‘twisties’ (a temporary loss of air awareness) left Biles unable to complete her rotations, forcing her to withdraw from several events. Having overcome her mental block, Biles returned for battle on the balance beam, nabbing a second medal to go along with team silver. But it was another two years before she would be seen in competition again.
“I say put mental health first,” Biles said of her decision to step away in Tokyo. “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. So it’s OK sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself, because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are — rather than just battle through it.”
It is not just in the arena that Biles has had battles to overcome. In 2018, the gymnast revealed that she had been sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the disgraced former team doctor of the US Gymnastics team. Nassar is serving between 40 and 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young female athletes in his care, with Biles among those testifying at the Senate in 2021 about how the system had failed to protect her.
After attending regular therapy, Biles at last felt ready to make her comeback last August. Anticipation abounded as she stepped back into elite gymnastics at the US Classic in Chicago. What level would Biles be at after so long away? The answer was emphatic: a dominant all-around victory. A month and a half later, a return to top level was underlined by four golds and a silver at the World Championships in Belgium: her antics in Antwerp were proof that Biles was most certainly back.
“It was emotional, and it means everything,” Biles said afterwards. “The fight, everything that I’ve put in to get back to this place, feel comfortable and confident enough to compete. It was a lot.”
A return to the Olympics now offers an opportunity to cement her legacy. Her tilt at six gold medals three years ago may have ended in disappointment but Biles could once more target an historic haul in Paris.
The American sits five golds behind Larisa Latynina, the most successful female gymnast at the Games, on the all-time list. A repeat of Rio would vault her into rarified air, and anything more into history — after the turmoil and torment of Tokyo, Biles appears ready to shine again.
