After her 2024 Paris Olympics success, Simone Biles may want to end her Olympic gymnastics career while she’s still on top.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated — where she was named 2024 Sportsperson of the Year — published on Thursday, January 2, Biles, 27, said returning for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics would feel like “life and death” after winning four medals in Paris this past summer.
“Because I’ve accomplished so much, there’s almost nothing left to do rather than to just be snobby and to try again and for what?” she explained. “I’m at a point in my career where I’m humble enough to know when to be done.”
Though Biles did not confirm a firm decision, she told the outlet it would feel “greedy” if she did return to the Games. “Those are the consequences. But that’s also your decision to decide,” she said. “What sacrifices would be made if I go back now? When you’re younger, it’s like, prom, college. Now it’s like, starting a family, being away from my husband [Jonathan Owens]. What’s really worth it?”
Simone Biles Doesn’t Want to Hear ‘What’s Next?’ After Olympic Medal Win
Biles took home a total of four medals at the Paris Summer Olympics, which ran from July 2024 to August 2024, bringing her total medal count to 11. (The 2024 Olympics also marked a major return for Biles after she was forced to withdraw from several events at the Tokyo Olympics.)
In addition to helping the U.S. women’s gymnastics team win gold in the women’s team competition, Biles won two individual gold in the women’s all-around and vault events. She also earned a silver in the women’s floor exercise, coming in second to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.
Her wins in Paris earned her the honor of the most decorated U.S. gymnast in Olympic history taking the title from former Olympian Shannon Miller.
Having never expected to become the face of U.S. gymnastics, Biles told the outlet she’s not ready to wrestle with the legacy she’ll leave behind. “I don’t think the reality has set in of what I’ve exactly done in the sport,” she noted. “I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don’t think I’ve realized just yet. I don’t think I’ll realize ’til maybe I retire and look back in a couple years like, ‘Damn, she was good.’ Because I can see that, but I do it every day. So, for me, it’s normal.”
Shortly after the Paris Games came to a close, Biles exclusively told Us Weekly what she would change about the Olympic Village in 2028. “We’re elite athletes trying to compete on the biggest stage of our life, the most important meet of our life, and they’re like, ‘Hey, try doing it after you sleep on this cardboard bed,’” she shared in September. “We’re the best athletes in the world, so I feel like for just one or two weeks we deserve the best of the best. You know, we shouldn’t be stressing about sleeping on a cardboard bed.”
Simone Biles on Competing in 2028 Olympics: ‘Can’t I Live?’
She later hinted at a possible retirement in the second half of her Simone Biles Rising Netflix docuseries, which dropped in October 2024. “At this moment in my career, I feel like if I had to process it, it would be bittersweet,” she said of hanging up her leotard after Paris. “I mean, we’ve been longing for this for a while now and now it’s here. It’s gone.”
Noting that she felt “a lot of relief” after competing in Paris, she added: “Now, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. Like, what happens in life now?’”
