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Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the women’s rhythmic gymnastics qualification competition for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Bercy Arena.
photo: AFP
analyze – In the empty stadiums of the Tokyo Olympics — the eerie, spectator-less scenes three years ago — American gymnastics great Simone Biles suffered a much-publicized mental health crisis.
The world watched as Biles, the world’s most famous gymnast, faltered on her first vault in the team all-around final. She still managed to land on her feet, but fear was evident on her face.
Minutes later, she withdrew from the team competition, a decision that shocked the world. It was later discovered that the vault was caused by a “torsion” – a term gymnasts use to describe a loss of spatial awareness in mid-air. She later explained that the condition was a manifestation of years of unresolved trauma, not only from her own drive for excellence, but from the expectations of the world at large.
“Her body and her mind weren’t working in unison. Something was wrong,” her coach Laurent Landy explains in Netflix’s new documentary Simone Biles: The Rise.
On Sunday, Biles returns to a rebuilt, renewed and glamorous Olympic arena.
Simone Biles competes on the uneven bars.
photo: AFP
The 27-year-old superstar dazzled the crowd with her technical prowess and daring tricks, leading her to victory in the individual all-around qualifying round and helping her U.S. team take first place in the team qualifying round.
Biles’ performance had such an impact that American journalists from the same media held a small meeting to find the most appropriate adjective to describe it.
Biles looked ready for the moment from the moment she strode into the Bessie Arena to a packed house that included several A-list celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Ariana Grande and Anna Wintour.
She set the tone for the competition with a spectacular opening performance on the balance beam, and after successfully dismounting, she exhaled and looked up at the sky.
The cameras were trained on her. When the American team rotated their gear, so did the 50 photographers.
Biles performs in the women’s artistic gymnastics event.
photo: Muto Kaname/Yomiuri Shimbun/Yomiuri Shimbun (AFP)
Biles apparently twisted her calf during warm-ups on the vault, and as she sat on the floor — the apparatus that all but ended her Olympic run in Tokyo — TV cameras swooped down on her like crows in the official Paris 2024 vest.
Despite Biles’s worrying calf injury (her coach insisted it wasn’t serious), she looked like she was having a blast, which was one of her main goals in Paris.
She waved and smiled at the crowd as she moved between stops, earning a huge response from fans each time.
After Biles completed her final routine, a gravity-defying uneven bars routine, she ran to the edge of the mat, waved and blew kisses to the crowd before leaving the competition area to dance with teammate and friend Jordan Chiles.
She wanted to feel the atmosphere here, perhaps because Biles never thought she would come here to compete in the Paris Olympics. Before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she thought that the Olympics would be her farewell, because she subscribed to the traditional view that gymnasts are “old” after the age of 25.
photo: Muto Kaname/Yomiuri Shimbun/Yomiuri Shimbun (AFP)
But she had many other things on her mind at the time that would conspire to sabotage her plans. A month after the Tokyo incident, she appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to give evidence against convicted sex offender Larry Nassar.
It took two years for her to return to competition. Her new documentary, due to be released a few weeks before the Paris Olympics, follows Biles’ efforts to regain her form and confidence in the gym and overcome mental barriers.
In the book, she recalls the moment at the end of the Tokyo Olympics, describing it as the moment “the sound disappeared”. On Sunday at the Bercy Arena, there was no doubt that Simone Biles was the center of attention again.
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