Simone Biles is leaving behind those grueling two weeks in Japan three years ago when the gymnastics superstar prioritized her mental health and safety over fame, a decision that inspired some and upset others.
Suni Li must prove – perhaps most of all to herself – that the all-around gold medal she earned while watching Biles from the stands was no fluke.
Jordan Chiles helped lead the team to a silver medal, en route to a gold medal at the 2020 Games.
While Jade Carey will be an official member of the five-woman Olympic team after arriving in Tokyo as an individual qualifier, that path was not available to the U.S. this time and, frankly, she had no interest in exploring again.
They’re all returning in the unique spotlight — oh, and 16-year-old newcomer Hazley Rivera, too — that only the game’s biggest stage can provide.
His reasons are deeply personal. However, his motivation is not.
“This is definitely our redemption tour,” Biles said after winning the U.S. trials Sunday night to set up her third trip to the Olympics. “I think we all have so much more to offer.”
Perhaps none more so than Biles, who at 27 is the oldest American woman to join an Olympic gymnastics team since the 1950s. She never expected to do it nearly a decade after becoming a crossover sensation at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
And here he is. still working. Still pushing. Not to silence the critics who are still flooding her mentions on social media and wondering if she’ll “quit” again, but because she’s determined to extract everything she can from her remarkable talent. What she can do.
“No one is forcing me to do this,” said Biles, who claimed the all-around by posting a total of 117.225 over two days, nearly six points above Lee. “I wake up every day and choose to work out in the gym and come here and perform for myself. Just to remind myself that I can still do this.”
And do it at a level that no one else in his game – and when he is at his best, perhaps the game in general – can match.
The trip to France has never really been in doubt since Biles returned from a two-year break last summer. What she has done in the last 12 months is win a sixth world all-around title and capture an eighth and ninth national championships – both records – while doing the hardest gymnastics of her life.
She will be the hot favorite when she steps onto the Bercy Arena pitch, although there is plenty to work on ahead of women’s qualifying on July 28. Still, some things need to be cleared up in the next four weeks.
Biles stepped back after landing her Yurchenko double pike vault, a testament to both the difficulty of the vault and the immense power generated during the skill, a skill attempted by few male gymnasts and even fewer so cleanly. Let’s land.
She jumped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, although she was not as disappointed as she had been during a poor performance on Friday, after which she was cursed for all the world to see.
Biles finished with the floor exercise, her signature event. Although a small step out of bounds, there was also the unmatched world-class fall that caused a stir recently. From pop star taylor swiftwhose song “Ready for It” opens Biles’ routine.
She walked off the podium and received a standing ovation, then briefly sat on the steps to enjoy the moment of her last competitive round on American soil. Maybe ever.
Biles ignored questions about what’s next. He can wait. It’s been a long, winding road back to this moment. She intends to try to enjoy it while still being part of a team that will have “a lot of weight on our shoulders”.
He believes he and his teammates are in a better position to handle it. that is permanent
“It’s really nice that Tokyo gave us the opportunity to open the floor for that dialogue,” Biles said. “And so I think now the athletes are a little more in tune and we just trust what our gut is saying.”
And Biles’ gut told her that if she wanted to come back, she would have to do so on her own terms. This meant taking deliberate steps to ensure that her life would no longer be 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 Houston suburbs, hoping to move into it soon after Biles returns from Paris.
Biles is probably heading to France as the face of the US Olympic movement, though she’s well aware that some of the millions who will come to watch next month will be checking to see if the demons that derailed her in Tokyo again. Have emerged from.
And while there are still moments of concern – including at last year’s World Championships – she has taken safety measures to protect herself. She meets with a therapist weekly, even during competition season, something she did not do in preparation for the 2020 Games.
The Americans will take their oldest women’s team to the Games, thanks to Biles’ unmatched longevity — she hasn’t lost a single competition since 2013, starting and ending — and relaxed name, image and likeness rules at the NCAA level. Carey, 24, Chiles, 23, and Lee, 21, have been allowed to continue competing while cashing in on their newfound fame at the same time.
He has drawn on that experience during the sometimes harrowing meeting that saw the major contenders shillis jones, Sky Blakely And Kayla Disello Exit with a foot injury that took him out of the mix just weeks before the potential realization of a lifelong dream.
Watching good friends walk off the field in tears is a reminder of how thin 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 ever thought. She’ll try to enjoy it, pressure and all.
She may have gotten ahead of herself in 2021. His intention is not to let this happen this time.
“I think success is what I achieve,” she said. “I feel right now that I have been able to compete at the Olympic trials and make the Paris Olympic team. Then we will look forward from there.
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
This post was published on 06/30/2024 10:51 pm
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