She's back.
Cheered on by a sellout crowd and celebrities at the Bercy Arena in Paris, Simone Biles shone in her Olympic comeback, catapulting herself to the top of the all-around heat in a leotard adorned with 10,000 Swarovski crystals.
It's been 1,090 days since Biles won bronze on the balance beam at the Tokyo Olympics, a welcome footnote in a tumultuous Olympics in which she withdrew from three other individual finals, citing a mental disorder known in athletics as “Twisties.”
Tom Cruise, Snoop Dogg, Ariana Grande and Anna Wintour were in attendance to witness the latest chapter in the 27-year-old's incredible career, which has already made her the most decorated gymnast of all time with 37 World Championship and Olympic medals.
As obviously a celebrity hall of famer herself by now, Biles' return was also dramatic: On her return to floor exercise, where she performed a rare triple flip, she appeared to have injured her left foot, briefly consulted with a U.S. team physical therapist, and even crawled back down the runway on all fours from her first practice vault.
A few minutes later, she answered those concerns by landing a Yurchenko double pike vault, aka a Biles II. Biles was the only female gymnast to come even remotely close to completing the move, which is all the more remarkable considering she was clearly not at her best.
Biles appeared emotional and a little distracted early in her performance, but was all smiles at the end of her performance on the uneven bars, her weakest event and, as expected, the only one of the four individual final events where she was almost certain to lose.
Biles sits in last place, eighth, after the second of five qualifying rounds and will be competing on bars Sunday with former Belgian Olympian and two-time world champion Nina Del Waal.
In fact, without the injury, Biles couldn't have wished for a better long-awaited comeback, the culmination of her journey back to life in style after a year off following the Tokyo Olympics, with four gold medals and a silver at the World Championships in Antwerp in 2023.
Chelsea Memmel, the U.S. team's technical leader, described the Paris Games as a “revenge tour,” and it was not just for Biles, but for four of the five members of the team who narrowly fell short in the Tokyo team event, losing to the Russian Olympic Committee's representatives.
It was only fitting that Biles would return to the Olympic arena on the apparatus that had given her solace in Tokyo, as she showed incredible courage in seizing one last chance at an individual medal despite being plagued by an illness she spoke about eloquently and honestly.
Her balance beam score of 14.733 was nearly three-quarters of a point better than her score in Tokyo, and after two revolutions she placed second to China's Yaqin Zhou.
✨ A sense of teamwork ✨
The U.S. women's team earned a spot in the team final with a score of 172.296 in the preliminary round. The remaining division finals will conclude later today, so we'll have an update on the individual finals. pic.twitter.com/RFAZ4Ryo6o
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 28, 2024
As if she wasn't under enough pressure already, Biles performed on the floor after a fall by teammate and defending Olympic champion Jade Carey, which cost her the chance to defend her title and may have even affected her U.S. qualifying score had Biles not performed well.
The chances are good: On both floor exercise and vault, Biles placed more than three-quarters of a point higher than her current closest competitors, despite high expectations and obvious injury concerns.
Biles' return to the Olympic arena is clearly an inspiration to her teammates and rivals.
“We probably won't see anyone like Simone again for a while and what she brings to the sport is really exciting,” Britain's Becky Downey said.
“It's incredible to have her back. What she's done for gymnastics is fantastic for the sport as a whole, bringing it to a wider audience and inspiring so many young girls.”
Biles waved to all four corners of the arena and, in a final slick move, skipped over interviews in the media mix zone before finally exiting, with the celebrity-studded crowd soon following suit.
She and them will return two days later for the women's team final, where they are expected to add to Biles' already record-breaking medal tally and cement her legend as what is now arguably indisputable the greatest gymnast the world has ever seen.
