Simone Biles came to win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and that’s precisely what she did.
The gymnast, 27, ultimately walked away with four medals at the conclusion of the summer games. Biles took home three home gold medals in Paris, winning the women’s artistic individual all-around, women’s vault and team all-around with Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Hezly Rivera and Jordan Chiles. On Tuesday, August 5, Biles won sliver in the floor exercise with Chiles taking home bronze after the score changed in her favor. Biles now has 11 Olympic medals overall.
After stepping out of bounds twice during her routine, Biles knew that Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade — who she has been neck and neck with throughout the Games — may have edged her out. “I think Rebeca got this one,” Biles said before her score of 14.133 was revealed.
In warm-ups, Biles fell while trying to land her triple double, with commentator and Team USA alum Laurie Hernandez noting that she “landed weird.” The gymnastics star had a similar warm-up earlier in the Games, powering through a calf injury before the all-around gymnastics qualifiers.
Earlier on Tuesday, both Biles and Lee struggled on the balance beam finals, finishing in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Biles returned to the Olympics after previously winning four gold medals and one bronze medal in Rio in 2016 and one silver and one bronze medal in Tokyo in 2021. Her first stint made her a fan favorite, but her second ended differently after she was forced to withdraw from multiple events due to a condition called the “twisties” that caused her to become disoriented in the air while performing tricks.
In the aftermath of the Tokyo Olympics, Biles took a hiatus from the sport to focus on her mental health.
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“I wish I could sit here and tell you it was glorious,” she told Vanity Fair in her February cover story. “When I took a break after 2016, I had the time of my life. I was doing anything and everything. But after 2020, it was kind of depressing until I started therapy and got help. I felt like a failure. Even though I was empowering so many people and speaking out about mental health, every time I talked about my experience in Tokyo — because it obviously didn’t go the way that I had planned — it stung a little bit. But all in all, it was the best decision.”
After Biles made the U.S. gymnastics team in June, she reflected on her journey back to the Olympics.
“This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give,” she told reporters during a June press conference, referring to herself and teammates.
“I know we’re stronger than what we showed in Tokyo, so I think it has to be for us because it can’t be for anybody else — that’s not why we do it,” she continued. “We do it for ourselves and the love for the sport and the love for representing the U.S. We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to do our best.”
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Biles also brushed off naysayers who labeled her a “quitter” after her 2021 Olympics turn.
“They’ll still say like, ‘Oh, my gosh, are you going to quit again, are you going to quit again?’ And if I did, what are you going to do about it? Tweet me some more?” she said. “Like, I’ve already dealt with it for three years. But yeah, they want to see us fail.”
While Biles is aware of the intense scrutiny surrounding Olympic athletes, she has learned to tune out the noise.
“They want to see the rise to success, and then as soon as you get it and do kind of take that and run with it and you start reigning for a really long time, they want to see the downfall,” she concluded. “[It] is really unfortunate because sports hasn’t seen athletes like we’ve seen before. So you really have to give them their flowers in the sport because once they’re gone you’re going to miss them.”
