MINNEAPOLIS – They all had a reason to come back. Each one of them.
Simone Biles will move on from those painful two weeks in Japan three years ago when the gymnastics superstar prioritized her mental health and safety over glory, a decision that inspired some and maddened others.
Suni Lee to prove — perhaps to herself most of all — that the all-around gold medal she won while Biles watched from the stands was no fluke.
Jordan Chiles will turn the team’s silver she helped secure at the 2020 Games into gold.
Jade Carey will become an official member of the five-woman Olympic team after reaching Tokyo as an individual qualifier, a path not available to the U.S. this time around and, frankly, a path she had no interest in exploring again anyway.
They’re all returning to the unique spotlight — oh, and 16-year-old rookie Hezly Rivera, too — that only the sport’s biggest stage can offer.
His reasons are deeply personal. His motivation, however, is not.
“This is definitely our redemption trip,” Biles said after putting together a third trip to the Olympics by winning the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday night. “I feel like we all have more to give.”
Perhaps none more so than Biles, who at 27 is the oldest American woman to make an Olympic gymnastics team since the 1950s. She never expected to continue doing so nearly a decade after becoming a crossover sensation at the Olympics. 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
And here she is. Still working. Still pushing. Not to shut up the critics who still flood her social media mentions wondering if she will “give up” again, but because she remains determined to squeeze everything she can out of her remarkable talent.
“No one is forcing me to do this,” said Biles, who recorded a two-day total of 117.225 to claim the total by nearly six points over Lee. “I wake up every day and choose to train in the gym and come here and perform.” alone. Just to remind myself that I can still do this.”
And do it at a level that no one else in her sport – and when she’s at her best, perhaps in sport in general – can match.
A trip to France has never been in doubt since Biles returned from a two-year break last summer. All she has done in the last 12 months is win her sixth world title overall and capture her eighth and ninth national championships – both records – while doing the hardest gymnastics of her life.
She will be a prohibitive favorite when she steps into the Bercy Arena, although there is plenty to work on before the women’s qualifier on July 28. There are still things to clean up over the next four weeks.
Biles stepped back after landing her double Yurchenko vault, a testament to the difficulty of the vault and the immense power she generates during a skill that few male gymnasts attempt and even fewer land so cleanly.
She jumped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, although she wasn’t as frustrated as she was during a sloppy performance on Friday that left her uttering an expletive for all the world to see.
Biles finished with a flourish on the floor exercise, her signature event. Although there was a small step out of bounds, there was also an unparalleled world-class drop that recently attracted attention by pop star Taylor Swiftwhose song “Ready For It” opens Biles’ routine.
She stepped off the podium to a standing ovation, then sat at the top of the stairs to soak up the moment in what could be her last competitive round on American soil for quite some time. Maybe never.
Biles avoided questions about what’s next. It can wait. It was a long and winding road back to this moment. She intends to try to make the most of it even though she is part of a team that will have “a lot of weight on our shoulders”.
She believes she and her teammates are in the best position to deal with it. This is the lasting
“It’s great that Tokyo gave us the opportunity to open the stage for this talk,” Biles said. “And so I think now athletes are a little more in tune and we just trust what our gut is telling us.”
And Biles’ instinct told her that if she wanted to come back, she needed to do it on her terms. That meant taking intentional steps to ensure her life was no longer defined by her gymnastics.
She married Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens in the spring of 2023 and the two are building a home in the northern suburbs of Houston where they hope to move soon after Biles returns from Paris.
Biles heads to France as perhaps the face of the U.S. Olympic movement, although she is well aware that more than a few of the millions who will tune in to watch next month will be checking to see if the demons that hampered her in Tokyo resurface.
And while there are still moments of anxiety – including at last year’s world championships – she has implemented safeguards to protect herself. She meets with a therapist weekly, even during competition season, something she didn’t do in preparation for the 2020 Games.
The Americans will bring their longest-running women’s team to the games ever, as Biles’ unparalleled longevity – she hasn’t lost a competition that started and ended since 2013 – and the loosening of rules around name, image and likeness at the level of the NCAA have allowed Carey (24), Chiles (23) and Lee (21) to continue to compete while cashing in on their newfound fame at the same time.
They relied on that experience during a sometimes harrowing meeting that saw the top candidates Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely It is Kayla Di Cello They left with leg injuries that took them out of the picture weeks before the potential realization of a lifelong dream.
Seeing good friends leave the arena in tears was a reminder of how fine the line can be between making it and not making it. Biles has been on the right side of that line for longer than she realized. She’s going to try to have fun, pressure and all.
She may have gotten ahead of herself in 2021. She intends not to let that happen this time.
“I feel like success is just what I do,” she said. “I feel like I have now had success competing in the Olympic Trials and making the Paris Olympic team. So we’ll see from here on out.”
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