Biles fights through kidney stone ordeal at world championships

DOHA, Qatar—Simone Biles spent a portion of the night before her return to world championships in the emergency room. The sensation she chalked up to the usual pre-meet stress evolved into searing agony that at times left her crawling on the floor.

When a CT scan revealed a kidney stone—one she nicknamed “the Doha Pearl”—the reigning Olympic gymnastics champion grabbed her stuff and discharged herself from the hospital, telling the staff she’ll deal with the pain later.

“I heard rollercoasters might help kidney stones,” Biles said. “And I’m like ‘Well, I’m basically like my own little rollercoaster out there.’”

One that turns each performance into a thrill ride of its own. Smiling through each twist, flip and turn, the 21-year-old Biles was nearly flawless during qualifying on Saturday, posting the highest scores on balance beam, floor exercise and vault on her way to a total of 60.965 on a day when the Americans put up a team score of 174.429, a staggering 12 points clear of second-place Japan through six of 11 qualifying groups.

“She’s Simone,” U.S. high performance coordinator Tom Forster said. “You’d expect the same out of a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods and that’s who she is in our sport. And she showed it.”

Even though she didn’t get back to the hotel room she shares with teammate Riley McCusker until after 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. Even after skipping the early workout as a precaution. Even though she couldn’t be treated with the same pain medication typically given those dealing with kidney stones because doing so would put her in jeopardy of failing a drug test.

No matter. Biles did what she always seems to do when the rest of her sport is watching: She dominated. Her all-around total marked the highest in the world since her gold medal-winning total at the 2016 Summer Olympics. And still she sees room for improvement.

Asked what she’d give herself on a day she completed a vault in competition that will end up bearing her name the next time the code of points is updated, Biles shrugged and said “6 or 7.”