Every gymnast is already shining before stepping onto the mat, jumping on the horse, or maneuvering on the uneven bars, with the crystals that are applied to the equipment. No one takes this more seriously than the Americans, who have not one, not two, but seven different outfits for Olympic competition, with the number of crystals ranging between three thousand and ten thousand. Simone Biles wouldn’t need this extra shine to be a luminous presence at the Games, and that was evident in Paris during her Olympic return for the qualifications of women’s artistic gymnastics. She came, she competed, she was perfect, and she was applauded at every moment.
On the first day of women’s gymnastics in Paris, all eyes (including those of some celebrities, such as Snoop Dogg, Tom Cruise, and Lady Gaga) were on this 27-year-old American woman who, in Tokyo, felt that she was not in a position to be perfect – she experienced what she called “twisties,” something she couldn’t quite explain but which made her feel like she couldn’t control her own body, which is dangerous for a gymnast who risks as much as Biles.
We already knew she was back, but at her first acrobatic moves in Paris, the packed Paris Bercy arena breathed a sigh of relief. This was a Simone Biles with a clear head.
In subdivision 2, the first rotation put the American team on the balance beam. Simone was the fourth to go up, and a huge ovation was heard – the audience was mostly American, but it must be said that they were generous with their applause for other flags. Simone did not seem as liberated as in her other Olympic appearances.
More serious and less smiling, she tackled the first apparatus and heard another ovation when she finished. Right here, she marked a position, with the second-best score of the group – 14.733, with a difficulty score of 6.400 and an execution score of 8.333. Better than her was only the Chinese Yaquin Zhou (14.866, with a higher difficulty score of 6.600).
This went on during all the apparatuses. The American faced them all as if it were a job, perhaps with the distance that age and experience have given her and with less awe than in her earlier years.
It was on the floor where the first dazzling moment came, despite being limited by discomfort in her left foot (which was bandaged). She had a small penalty but remained well above the competition (14.600), while Jada Carey, the floor champion in Tokyo, suffered a fall and was heavily penalized in her final score.
The third rotation put Simone on the vault, where, with her left leg partially bandaged, she advanced to the Yurchenko Double Pike, classified as the most difficult vault, and left the competition miles behind – a combined score of 15.300 between the two vaults, followed by Carey (14.433).
In the final rotation, the uneven bars, Simone did not perform at the same level as others, like the excellent Algerian Kaylia Nemour (15.600), settling for 14.433 – but she was satisfied with what she had done on an apparatus that is not her specialty. And the bright, open smile appeared right afterward.
In this almost perfect Olympic return, Biles only missed qualifying for the final of one apparatus, the uneven bars, by one place – she finished ninth, with 14.333, behind the German Hellen Kevric (14.600), the last qualified.
In the others, after all rotations of all subdivisions were completed, the American qualified first in the vault and in the all-around, and second in the balance beam, in addition to having contributed to the qualification of Team USA for the final as the best in the collective qualification.
Simone Biles is in Paris to add a few more gold medals to her long resume, alongside the 23 she’s already won at the World Championships and four at the Olympic Games. All the Olympic gold she has, she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, because we know well what happened in Tokyo.
Being perfect every day comes at a high price, and the American paid it by opting out of almost all individual finals in the Japanese capital (she only did the balance beam and took home the bronze) because she had lost her sense of space and control over her own body.
In Paris, she has both.