(Paris) Brilliant at the Rio Games in 2016, extinguished at those in Tokyo in 2021, the American Simone Biles returns to the Olympic arena at the Paris Games, starting Sunday, with a tenfold love of gymnastics and a slew of medals in her sights.
At 27, she has already become a sporting icon. Biles, with four Olympic titles and five acrobatic figures to her name, is returning to form at the Games after a bout of depression that gripped her in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics and kept her away from gymnastics for a year.
On Sunday, at the Arena Bercy in Paris, she will be in the spotlight for the qualifications, which will be followed by the team event, the individual all-around competition and then the individual apparatus finals. It will be a week of intense moments where Biles will be able to set off in search of six gold medals.
“I think I love gymnastics even more than I did before,” Simone Biles said in an interview with the newspaper The Teamreleased Friday, and produced in December at his base camp in Texas.
“I don’t have anything to prove anymore, I don’t have to win the World Championships or the Olympic Games anymore. I’ve rediscovered the love of sport, the fun aspect of it, the joy it gives me. I still have sporting goals, things I would like to accomplish. But I don’t think I’ll be disappointed if I don’t succeed,” she continued.
The athlete, who revealed in 2018 that she had suffered sexual violence from the former doctor of the American Federation Larry Nassar like more than 200 other victims, went through difficult periods from which she is seen even stronger, judging by this incredible jump that she officially achieved in competition at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp (Belgium), where she won four gold medals.
In training on Thursday, she performed the jump again impeccably, a Yurchenko double pike, which is now called “Biles II” in the scoring code because she is the only woman to have ever landed it.
Biles has lost none of her tone and technical excellence, which clearly puts her in the position of arch favorite, just like the United States which reigns over the discipline.
The iconic figure of gymnastics, trained by a French duo, Laurent and Cécile Landi since the end of 2017, brings with her teammates all haloed: Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee – who won the all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics. Only the youngest of the troupe, Hezly Rivera, 16, has not yet won anything.
To compete with her, Biles will be able to count on Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who won the vault in Tokyo and won the silver medal in the all-around competition. The triple world champion is highly anticipated in a duel with the American, but the Brazilian assured in an interview with AFP that she was “not focused” on Biles.
France, who are hosting at home, could well come out on top, notably with Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, who is training alongside Biles in the United States.
“I am friends with her and I trained with her for two years. And you should know that she is someone simple and very open. Being in contact with her brings me a lot of things because I talk to her quite often and she gives me a lot of support,” said the Frenchwoman.
The French women made a great splash at the 2023 World Championships by winning team bronze.
But before the women, the men will open the artistic gymnastics ball on Saturday with their qualifications.
Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto will be the center of attention. The gymnast became the youngest Olympic champion in history to win the all-around competition in Tokyo in 2021, at the age of 19. The reigning double world champion intends to keep his laurels in Paris, despite an injury to the middle finger of his right hand, contracted in May and from which he assured that he was getting better on Thursday.
Britain’s Max Whitlock is hoping to send off his career in style by becoming the first gymnast to win a medal on the same event – the pommel horse – at four consecutive Olympics. After that, the 30-year-old plans to retire.