The greatest American gymnast to ever live – and one with a strong case to call herself the greatest of all time – came to Paris last week in a strange spot.
She’s the most decorated gymnast ever. She’s a world-famous superstar. She’s changed the profile of her sport at home and abroad. And she’s changed the way people around the world talk about mental health, both in sports and in everyday life.
Biles returned to competition in triumphant fashion in 2023, but she was still a bit of an unknown. One question hovered over her: after her shocking withdrawal from competitions in the 2020 Olympics, could she ever possibly be as good as she was before Tokyo?
After five intense, high-pressure, gold-medal competitions at the Bercy Arena in Paris, Biles answered that question emphatically: no – she was better.
Maybe the medal haul wasn’t quite the same as Biles’ stunning performance in Rio de Janeiro at age 19. But 27-year-old Simone Biles physically looked like her all-conquering self in all but one of the competitions she entered and mentally she was stronger than she could have ever imagined.
“To see where I’ve grown from Tokyo and even the 19-year-old from Rio is amazing. I’m proud of Simone for putting in the work and never giving up,” Biles said after winning the all-around competition last Thursday.
Those five moments of world-class, heavy-pressure competition showed a side of sports that fans don’t often see thanks to Biles’ incredible openness and humility. Most athletes do not ever want to show or admit weakness. Most athletes do not want to ever admit that they might be able to fail or are at the very least loathe to admit to dwelling on moments in which they disappointed. Simone Biles is not most athletes.
Throughout the entirety of the Games, Biles described how she was mentally preparing for each competition – therapy each Thursday religiously and as needed before big competitions – and emphasized that she was going to be taking care of herself first and foremost. And it was working; that most important part of her game allowed Biles to ascend to an even more incredible level.
The first vault
The story is well-told by now. Biles pulled out of the team competition in Tokyo after suffering a case of the ‘twisties,’ a dangerous headspace in which a gymnast can no longer keep track of exactly where their body is in the air. The twisties combined with the intense pressure of being one of the faces of Team USA was too much for the 2021 version of Biles.
The 2024 version of Biles was more mentally prepared, more aware of how her mind needed to be tended to during these huge moments of stress. But that doesn’t mean there were no nerves.
In qualifying on July 28, Biles tweaked her calf during warm-ups for the floor exercise and suddenly the intense pressure on her was once again off the charts. Every step she took was watched intently, all those in attendance and around the world looking for signs of weakness or pain. She finished out the day strong, but the worries over her condition built throughout the next two days ahead of the team final.
Intense questions were asked about how ready she would be – both physically and mentally. She answered them with one vault in the team gymnastics final.
Biles’ first vault of the team competition on July 30, the same moment at which she pulled out of the Tokyo Games’ team competition three years earlier, was huge: a 14.900 score helped set the Americans on the path to a gold medal. But it took running that first vault to assure her that this wouldn’t be a second Olympics to forget.
“After I finished fault, I was relieved,” she told reporters. “I was like, ‘Phew,’ because – please, no flashbacks or anything. But I did feel a lot of relief. And as soon as I landed, I thought – I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m definitely – we’re gonna do this.’”
Teammate Jordan Chiles had a huge smile on her face and was jumping up and down after Biles completed that vault. She knew what it meant.
“I was like, ‘Yo, hallelujah, no flashbacks. No, nothing.’ I was like, ‘OK, like, all she needs to do is just do her normal,’” Chiles said. “So, me jumping up and down was just like a relief. And you know, from there on, she’s the greatest of all greats.”
A party in Paris
From that moment straight through until Monday afternoon, Biles was unstoppable. With that first vault ticked off the list, Biles performed like she had three years worth of weight and expectation lifted, three years of “is she ever going to be the same?” suddenly gone after an emphatic answer.
In the very last performance of the team final a week ago, it was Biles in the spot where all great athletes want to be: alone under the bright lights with the opportunity to clinch a title.
“At the beginning of the day, I started off with therapy this morning so that was super exciting. And then I told her I was feeling calm and ready,” Biles said of her preparations for that night. “And that’s kind of exactly what happened.”
Next was Thursday’s all-around duel with Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. It was expected to be a battle – in her Netflix documentary that aired ahead of the Games, Biles described Andrade as the one competitor who “scares” her – and it lived up to the hype. Biles outdid Andrade on the vault, the Brazilian’s strongest apparatus, but a wobble on the uneven bars left her needing to make a comeback as Andrade shot into first.
The American superstar took the lead back on the balance beam and then on the floor – again, alone under the lights, ready to clinch a title – she turned in perhaps the defining performance of the Games.
With a massive, insanely clutch 15.066 score, Biles clinched the gold medal in the individual all-around, reclaiming the title she held as a 19-year-old in Rio. It was a full-circle moment for the Spring, Texas, native, once again having the two most high-profile gold medals in her sport safely wrapped around her neck.
It was more than enough to confirm that Biles was all the way back. On the floor of the Bercy Arena, the diminutive champion put something else around her neck: a diamond-encrusted goat. A goat for the GOAT.
But she wasn’t done. And Andrade wasn’t going away, something Biles knew all too well.
“I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired,” Biles said after the all-around. “She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes, and it brought up the best athlete in myself, so I’m excited and proud to compete with her but … it was uncomfortable, guys. I was stressing.”
A victory on vault and a stumble on Monday
Two days later, Biles and Andrade would once again be facing off, this time in the vault final. It was once again Biles’ moment.
On her first vault, she took off on her run like a shot and absolutely nailed an extremely difficult Yurchenko double pike, also known as Biles II. She bounced on the landing and stayed standing tall. The score was huge: 15.700. A 9.400 score on execution and a 6.400 on difficulty, but a 0.1 point penalty because her foot hit the line on the vault’s landing mat.
Biles’ twisting, flipping second effort – a Cheng vault that sees her shooting off like a bottle rocket on the Fourth of July – was stuck perfectly in the center of the mat.
She surged into first place with an average score of 15.300, after her second vault was scored a 14.900. She set a lofty standard, more than a point clear of second place in the early going.
In pictures: Superstar gymnast Simone Biles
Andrade matched Biles’ Cheng vault, twisting and turning through the air while doing two flips. Andrade’s first vault scored a 15.100 – higher than Biles’ Cheng. Her second scored high for execution – 9.433 – but difficulty marks dragged her score down. Ultimately, she couldn’t hang with Biles on the day.
Forty-eight hours later, Biles would face off against Andrade again on the balance beam and the floor exercise.
In the beam final, which the American would describe as “odd” later on, Biles and teammate Sunisa Lee both slipped off the bar and multiple other competitors also fell. Andrade didn’t fall but had a disappointing performance by her standards and neither the Brazilian star nor Biles would end up with a medal in the event.
It was the first major test of Biles’ hard-won mental toughness in Paris. Everything had been laid out so perfectly for a storybook comeback narrative: from heartbreak to glory in three years and the heroine wins in the end.
Instead, that slip off the beam showed that even this version of Biles was human – a fact that she had made some forget with her dominance in the first three medal events in Paris.
The tension was thick inside the packed arena as Biles took the floor for her final performance of these Olympics. And Biles cut through it as best she could, her power and speed on full display. But those unique defining qualities come with a drawback: physics. Two moments of stepping out of bounds cost Biles six-tenths of a point – enough to hand the gold medal to Andrade.
Disappointment in the result, but not in herself
But as much as the mental health work that Biles did in the years since Tokyo prepared her for competing in Paris, it prepared her even more for this moment: defeat.
A night earlier, American Noah Lyles pulled out his bronze medal from the 200-meter dash to explain that his third-place finish in that race was all the motivation he needed to win the 100-meter dash in Paris. It’s the type of motivation that many great athletes look to – getting fired up by losing, looking to make sure it never happens again.
After her two most disappointing finishes in Paris, Biles was not angry. She was not down, she was not depressed. She didn’t beat herself up for stepping out of bounds on the floor.
Instead, she kept perspective and seemed almost serene. She was disappointed not to win, but not disappointed in herself.
“I accomplished way more than my wildest dreams – not just at this Olympics, but in this sport,” Biles told reporters. “So I can’t be mad at my performances. A couple years ago, I didn’t think I’d be back here at an Olympic Games, so competing and then walking away with four medals, I’m not mad about it. I’m pretty proud of myself.”
It was a revealing statement. Ultimately, that perspective, that serenity, is what made Biles the force in Paris that she was.
In the biggest moments, Biles did not crack. When she stumbled, she stood back up. When there was a question to answer, she made sure it was answered emphatically. And when it was all over, even on a final day that ended without the gold that she wanted and many expected, she looked at it all and realized it was still sublime.
So, maybe Biles didn’t win as many medals as she did in Rio and didn’t leave with as much gold around her neck as she’d have liked. But, as she said, Biles came to Paris, did her job and is leaving with her mind at peace. And that is worth more than any gold medal.
