Simone Biles stepped up to perform on the vault at Tuesday’s team all-around final at the Olympic Games, her teammate Jordan Chiles was watching closely.
It had been this exact moment back in 2021, at the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where it had all unraveled for Biles. Amid the intense pressure of the world’s expectations, she had found herself in the arena suddenly unable to perform her high-flying routines, beset by the “twisties,” mysteriously incapable of twisting in midair despite having done so thousands of times.
The gold is the first medal of the 2024 Olympic Games for Biles, who was already the most decorated gymnast in history. It is her eighth Olympic medal overall and her fifth gold — though Biles said she doesn’t keep count.
“I’m doing what I love and enjoying it. So that’s all that matters to me,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll truly understand the depth of it until I walk away from the sport.”
At this Olympics, she could win as many as four more. Biles is set to compete again Thursday in the individual all-around final, in which Biles, Andrade, and fellow U.S. gymnast Lee, who won the gold in Tokyo, are considered the event’s strongest contenders. Biles also qualified to compete in three of the four event finals: vault, balance beam, and floor exercise.
Perhaps the biggest mistake Biles made on Tuesday night came before the competition began: as Team USA was being introduced, she ran out onto the arena floor too early.
