Paris Olympics: Back with a bang, Simone Biles rises above ankle & calf niggles to steal the show in gymnastics

Simone Biles has five elements – two each on Vault and Floor exercise and one on Beam – named after her. There’s a very good chance that the city of Paris cedes its title rights to these Games, and turns 2024 altogether into the Simone Biles Olympics. The start to this high-style takeover, on Sunday, was sensational.

Olympic medals never come easy, extracting every ounce of fight from an athlete. So, Simone limped at one point after a dodgy landing during the All-Around team championships qualification. And then she crawled towards her teammates on her hands and knees till she found strength in her niggling ankle and calf. They talk of the glamour and grandeur of her superhuman feats in the air, but Simone was all grit in her Paris opening, as she went from limp-crawl to fly, a 0 to 100, on the cue of a start.

A sporting career that’s underpinned with the biggest bounce-back from trauma, saw her literally rise from that crawl, and hit the apparatus routines, as she took flight. The usual bounce looked greatly clipped, but Simone Biles is rock solid even when warding off a prowling injury.

She must’ve been in pain, but didn’t wince. On her crawl, she literally laughed. For someone who battled twisties at Tokyo, and testified representing hundreds of victims of abuse, a tweaked calf was not going to stop her march. So she just landed at the four rotations, and put on a show that made her the human model of the air-water-fire-earth ambigram, combining energy and balance of nature itself as she launched herself into orbit.

Simone Biles arrived in Tokyo as the unquestioned star of the Games but struggled. (AP Photo)

On her singularly difficult Yurchenko double pike vault, Simone garnered a humongous score of 15.800, including 9.4/10 for execution, despite a step-back. That double pike through air is called Biles II, and she owns it. In past tense, and present continuous, at every big event.

On the Balance Beam, considered the toughest apparatus, she soared and landed without a wobble. A small part of the Biles charm is in picking the toughest routines to crunch them and make them look easy. Her ankle was heavily taped before she started on the floor. But once she hit the first line, there was no flinching from her Biles I – which has a double layout with a half twist, nor Biles II – that’s even more bonkers : a triple-double with three twists and two back flips.

At the forefront

She finished Day 1 leading America to three points clear of next-placed Italy, herself tallying 59.566, while leading in vault and floor. Her coach casually remarked she could do better, even as the USA led 1-2 with Suni Lee.

Italy, China and Brazil are all stunningly strong teams, but Simone is determined to become the oldest woman at 27 to win an Olympic All-Around, and regain gold after Tokyo where, despite everything, they won silver. The last time anyone older won the gold was 72 years ago, when it last rained at the opening ceremony at Helsinki.

On her widely-roared comeback on Sunday with the tall stadium filled to the rafters, gymnastics’ GOAT, for once, got the United States and the rest of the world properly distracted from swimming. Tom Cruise and Greta Gerwig were in attendance as celebrities lined up to cheer for the USA. More of Hollywood is expected to fly in, and head straight to the gymnastics on Tuesday.

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The injury concerns add another chapter to Simone’s story as she looks to add to her four gold medals, as does a brand new element she unveils in the city of stylistic innovation. The Olympics have always needed the Bolts and the Phelpses. Paris though might’ve lucked out big time – they have the flesh-&-bones human VFX motherboard of all time, and she goes by the name, Her Royal Airness Simone Biles.

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