Simone Biles is trying to enjoy the moment after a two-year break. The Olympic talk can come later

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Simone Biles is well aware of how the drill goes. She’s lived it. Multiple times at this point.

Whenever the gymnastics star goes to work, the questions about the Olympics come, no matter where the Games fall on the calendar.

“It’s just like when you get married (and) they ask when you’re having a baby,” said Biles, who married Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens in April.

So it’s telling that while Biles talked for a good 15 minutes on Saturday night after her electric victory at the U.S. Classic — the 26-year-old’s first meet since her 2021 Tokyo Games was interrupted by a bout with ” the twisties ” — the words “Paris” and “2024” didn’t escape her lips.

“I’m in a really good spot and who knows,” she said. “I’m not going to think so far ahead.”

For now, she’s making it a point to enjoy “the little wins.” Stay in the moment. Try to enjoy the ride, something that became increasingly difficult in 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions forced her to compete in front of a largely empty Ariake Gymnastics Center with her friends and family essentially on the other side of the world back in Texas.

She was never really able to get her bearings in Japan. She knows she wasn’t the only one. Once she came forward to talk about the need to take a break to focus on her mental health, she had athletes in the Olympic Village coming up to her to share their own battles with what she called “silent demons.”

“Getting to talk to people and realizing we’re kind of all going through this together was nice,” Biles said. “But it’s sad because it’s the pinnacle of your career. You should be on top of the world and everybody’s kind of dreading it and so sad.”

Shedding that weight has taken time, therapy (which she goes to at least once a week) and a concerted effort by herself and her team to make sure she doesn’t end up in the same place she was during those strange, lonely, isolated days in Tokyo.

The plan this time around includes a lower profile, at least at this point.