PARIS — Three years after pulling out of the Tokyo Games with a mental block that prevented her from doing her dangerous gymnastics moves, Simone Biles proved to everyone Sunday at the Paris Games that she was back — and in full force.
Biles, who at 27 is the most decorated gymnast in history, was the top overall qualifier for the women’s all-around competition, and she led the United States to first place in team qualifying sessions Sunday. She also advanced to the finals in three individual events.
Biles injured her left calf while warming up for her floor routine, her second event. Her coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, said afterward that Biles “felt a little something” in her calf, which had been bothering her for the past few weeks. But Canqueteau-Landi said Biles’ injury was not serious, and they did not discuss dropping out or altering her routines and vaults.
“We told her to remind herself, like she’s capable of doing it,” Canqueteau-Landi said. “She knows she’s got this.”
With her lower leg taped, Biles still put forth the best overall score on the floor (14.6) and, most important for her, finished first on the vault.
In that event in Tokyo, during the team final, she became disoriented in the air and afterward withdrew from all but the balance beam at those Games.
But not this time.
As the crowd clapped in unison Sunday, Biles stood at the top of the vault runway, left leg taped by the medical staff. During the vault warmup, she finished one vault and crawled along the runway to the top of it and limped afterward. But showing her toughness and resilience, she still performed her two vaults.
The first was the Yurchenko double pike, a scary, dangerous vault that involves two full flips in a folded-over pike position. As she vaulted herself into the air, she flew higher than any other gymnast, by far, and then had so much power that she even landed with a step backward.
On her second vault, a Cheng, she flew far down the mat, landing just as the packed house, which included Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, shook the arena with their loud screams and cheers. Her score of 15.3 points crushed the competition.
To end her day of qualifying, she finished her uneven bars routine and confidently walked off the floor, her face scrunched up in a smile as she waved and blew kisses to the crowd.
After Tokyo, Biles thought she would quit the sport because the pressure to win and the criticism after she withdrew from the Games had been too much to bear. But she has been a faithful attendee of weekly therapy sessions and is now, she says, as ready as she can be. Last fall, she won her sixth all-around title at the world championships and led the United States to team gold.
Biles will be joined in the all-around final by teammate Sunisa Lee — the all-around champion in Tokyo — who finished third in the standings. American Jordan Chiles was fourth, just 0.067 of a point behind Lee, but only two athletes per country can advance to the final, so Chiles will not be included.
The only big mistake for the U.S. team came from Jade Carey, the reigning Olympic champion on the floor. She went out of bounds on two tumbling passes and then balked and fell on her last pass, ruining her chances of qualifying for that final.
The U.S. squad, with four returning Olympians will be the favorite to win gold in the team event Tuesday. Brazil, led by Rebeca Andrade, the all-around silver medalist in Tokyo, figures to be the United States’ toughest competition. Andrade finished second in the all-around qualifying Sunday.
The Russian team won the team gold medal in Tokyo, but no Russian athletes will be competing in artistic gymnastics. After Moscow invaded Ukraine, the International Gymnastics Federation barred Russian athletes from international competitions.
Another conspicuously absent team will be the host nation, France, which finished out of the top eight, in 11th place. The team was plagued by falls throughout its rotations, and none of the French gymnasts qualified for the all-around or any of the event finals.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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