With celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Flavor Flav, Lady Gaga, and John Legend watching, Simone Biles made a spectacularly successful return to the Olympics by dominating the qualifying round despite a calf injury that would have sidelined most athletes.
Team USA finished Sunday’s qualification session with an impressive score of 172.296, putting the group of athletes—including returning Olympians Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles—at the front of the pack heading into the all-around final on Thursday.
Biles, now 27, is the most decorated gymnast in history and considered the G.O.A.T of her sport—meaning Greatest of All Time. She debuted in this year’s competition in Paris after a widely publicized break, which began with her premature exit from the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health. The seven-time Olympic medalist has since spoken candidly about suffering from the “twisties,” a dangerous phenomenon where gymnasts lose their spatial awareness in the air.
Despite injuring her calf while warming up for the second round of qualifying events in the Bercy Arena, Biles delivered stunning and technically near-flawless performances on the balance beam, vault, floor, and uneven bars.
Video of the warm-ups showed Biles crawling back from the vault and then hopping on her right leg toward the edge of the mat. There, she told a teammate, “I’m gonna need a wheelchair.” CBS News noted that the gymnast was later seen using a foam roller off the floor’s side.
But the injury did not seem to limit Biles come game time. She performed an impressive vault routine that featured her trademark Yurchenko double pike, all with her ankle heavily taped. The routine earned her a spectacular score of 15.8.
Women’s gymnastics coach Cecille Landi, an Olympian who competed for France in 1996, told reporters that Biles had tweaked her calf several weeks ago and was on the mend during the training leading up to the games. “She felt a little something in her calf. That’s all,” Landi said after the qualifying session, according to the Olympics. The coach noted that Biles had no intention of leaving the competition, saying, “Never in her mind.”
Landi added that Biles’ calf had improved by the end of Sunday’s session. Heading into the final this week, Biles and Sunisa Lee will make history regardless of where they place in the event as two former all-around champions competing in the same event for the same country. Landi acknowledged Biles’ stunning comeback and said that knowing her track record, there could be even more room to grow.
“It was pretty amazing—59.5 and four-for-four,” Landi said of Biles’ qualifying performance and score, which eclipsed that of Lee, the reigning champion, by a solid margin. “Not perfect. She still can improve… just really good.”
Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA Newswire senior national correspondent.