Paris Olympics: Simone Biles starts day with therapy to win team gold for USA, bury Tokyo Games nightmares

Simone Biles is back winning gold at the Olympic Games. On Tuesday, the 27-year-old led a team comprising Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera to the USA’s fourth-ever gymnastics women’s team gold medal at the Bercy Arena in Paris.

For an athlete as accomplished as her sport, it was Biles’ first gold medal across eight years at the Games, with the lows of Tokyo 2021 wedged between the 2016 Rio Olympics and now in Paris. As Biles’ second-team gold medal propelled her past Shannon Miller as the most prolific American woman gymnast in the sport, she has indicated that she is past the nadirs of the Tokyo Olympics. Biles withdrew mid-way through the Games for mental health concerns after enduring the ‘Twisties’ in Tokyo.

Therapy has been at the heart of Biles’ comeback and it was no different on Tuesday. “At the beginning of the day, I started off with therapy this morning. That was super exciting,” Biles told Olympics.com. “I told my therapist I was feeling calm and ready.”

Opening her team’s final with a spotless Cheng vault, Biles affirmed that she buried the Tokyo nightmares where a team event bedlam triggered her woes. Biles could not nail down her Amanar vault then, completing only 1.5 twists mid-air as opposed to the regulation 2.5 while almost falling flat on the mat. “After I finished vault, I was relieved. “I was like, ‘Phew!’ because at least no flashbacks or anything. I did feel a lot of relief. As soon as I landed vault, I was like, ‘Definitely were’ going to do this,'” Biles said.

Simply stunning @Simone_Biles. ✨ pic.twitter.com/NoSufRdodY

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 30, 2024

The six-time world champion said the feeling of winning her second team gold has been completely different from the first time around in Rio in 2016 where she also swept four individual medals, including three golds and a bronze on balance beam.

“I think in 2016, we were destined to win gold, everybody kind of already said we were going to win gold. Now that I’m much older and we have so much more experience, we’re out here really having fun and enjoying what we’re doing.

“It just felt a little bit different [tonight]. It was super exciting, we had fun, we enjoyed each other’s time out there, and we just did our gymnastics,” Biles remarked.

The USA gold-medal winning team comprising (L-R) Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera. (REUTERS)

‘Twisties of Tokyo’

Back in Tokyo, Biles pulled out of the team event final after experiencing the ‘Twisties’. While the term does not technically correlate to a medical diagnosis, the twisties form a psychological condition during which gymnasts are prone to lose the sync between their body and mind, particurly while executing twists during a competition. The twisties can also lead to severe injury wherein a gymnast could be susceptible to fall dangerously on the mat.

Biles, who received immediate support for her decision to withdraw, later to took to social media to explain the condition she underwent. “Literally can not tell up from down. It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body. What’s even scarier is since I have no idea where I am in the air I also have NO idea how I’m going to land. Or what I’m going to land on,” she wrote on Instagram.

As her team went onto clinch the silver medal in Tokyo in her absence from the field, Biles withdrew from individual events save for a cautious comeback in the balance beam with a bronze.

“It means more than all the golds because I’ve been through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here; it was just… it was very emotional. And I’m just proud of myself and all of these girls as well. I didn’t really care about the outcome,” she later added. “I was so happy that I made the routine and then I got to compete one more time,” Biles had told NBC then.

With the positive start to her third Olympic Games, Biles would be on the hunt for more gold medals the coming days. Biles will compete in the all-around final on Thursday before Saturday’s the vault final. Biles’ final events will be the floor and beam finals on Monday.

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