Biles grounded amid lofty expectations
Résumé screams gold, but gymnast won’t get cocky
After making her first Olympics team, Simone Biles was happy and relieved. Both are to be expected, but it’s the latter emotion that reveals most about a gymnast who has been the best in the world for the last three years.
For Biles and Aimee Boorman, her longtime coach, getting on the team was the focus and ultimate goal. For everyone else, it was a mere formality for a gymnast who will be favored to win multiple gold medals in Rio de Janeiro.
“A little bit of both, because for the past three years it’s been a dream,” Biles says. “But once it comes true, you don’t even believe it. It’s kind of like a fairy tale, but you have to keep going, and I know this is just the beginning.”
For those who measure gymnastics success by what they do in the Games every four years, it is that. But for anyone who has seen Biles dominate the sport in the years since the London Games, it’s a continuation of a career that has put her in the conversation for the greatest of all time.
Biles has won the all-around in the last three world championships and the last four U.S. championships. Along the way, she has collected a record 10 worlds gold medals and 14 worlds medals overall.
She has won every all-around competi-
tion she has entered since claiming that first U.S. title in August 2013, a string of 11 events.
Despite that, Biles and Boorman have kept things normal for the 19-year-old, who turned pro in July 2015.
“I love how even though she’s been so successful and she always wins, she still is always so determined that even if she has a tough day in the gym, it really matters to her. It’s like every day for her really counts,” says Aly Raisman, who joins Biles in Rio. “She’s very serious about it, and she’s very determined.”
In building her résumé, Biles has combined unprecedented difficulty with near-flawless execution. Because the start values of her routines are higher than anyone else in the sport, she starts with about a two-point advantage against her competition.
In a sport often decided by tenths of points, Biles leaves herself room for mistakes yet seldom makes them.
In last year’s world championships, a slight bobble in the balance beam final was noteworthy. She still won gold. In the U.S. Olympic trials in July, she had errors on the balance beam both days but won by more than two points.
It’s her tumbling, air awareness and need to not get bored that keep Biles trying new and more difficult skills. Boorman caused a stir by posting video of Biles doing a double twisting double tuck off the beam, a dismount so difficult no one actually does it in competition.
“She’s kind of like Supergirl. It’s really impressive everything that she does, and it’s like easy for her,” Raisman says. “It’s not normal to be able to do your routines and then have the energy and have time to, oh, ‘I’ll just try these skills after.’ I don’t have the energy to do that.”
Biles has more than once received a 9.9 execution score on vault, putting her as close to perfect as any gymnast has been since the scoring system changed in 2006. In fact, it’s on vault where she has become more formidable.
In last year’s world championships, she helped the team to a gold medal be- fore winning the all-around, balance beam and floor. On vault, she took bronze and vowed to improve.
She does an Amanar, a roundoff onto the board followed by a 21⁄ twisting layout back flip and one of the most difficult vaults being competed today.
The Americans will be heavily favored to win team gold again, and Biles might be even more of a shoo-in for all-around gold. Three event golds are not only possible but also maybe even likely.
“She’s just special. The best gymnast that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” says Mary Lou Retton, the 1984 Olympic allaround gold medalist. “She’s going to have that Olympic title. She’s just got to show up. It’s hers.”