Biles targets ‘redemption’ as she reenters the spotlight at Paris Olympics

Paris – Simone Biles celebrated her arrival at the 2024 Paris Olympics by taking her fans behind the scenes.
The U.S. gymnast and one of the biggest stars at these Games took to Instagram on Tuesday and posted photos and videos of herself and her teammates from inside their accommodation at the athletes village.

Biles has over 7 million followers on the social media platform. But even more eyes could be trained on the 27-year-old Texan when the women’s Olympic gymnastics competition begins on Sunday.

Biles is one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. She has won four gold medals at the Olympics and 23 at the world championships. She will become the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast, breaking a tie with Shannon Miller, with a medal of any color in Paris.

Biles and the rest of the U.S. team had a practice session on Tuesday afternoon to prepare for the competition.

“Simone has been doing great,” Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead for the U.S. women’s team, said Tuesday. “She has been solid in training since Katy, Texas, (where the U.S. held its national team camp). She seems to be in a really good place, and she’s been a great leader for this team.”

Biles earned a silver medal in the team event and bronze on the balance beam at the postponed Tokyo Games three years ago. Her more lasting legacy from those Games, however, might be how she pushed the issue of mental health to the forefront in a way that reverberated across the sports world.

In Tokyo, Biles abruptly withdrew from the team event before pulling out of the finals in the individual all-around, floor exercise and vault. She competed in the balance beam final, but performed a scaled-down routine.

Biles said she was suffering from “the twisties,” which is when a gymnast becomes disoriented in the air, and pulled out of those events to protect her mental health. That, along with earlier statements by tennis star Naomi Osaka, sparked a conversation about mental health in sports that is still ongoing.

The organizers of the 2024 Games added more mental health resources for the athletes in Paris, and some delgations, including Japan and the United States, are traveling with mental health counselors.

I’m very proud of Simone and what she did,” Memmel said. “She put her health first in Tokyo. I know that’s not how she foresaw that competition going, but I think she did what was best for her and everybody. Team USA understood that and supported that decision.

“She was able to take a couple of years off (from) gymnastics and decided to come back and keep training. Seeing her now, I think she’s in a really good place. She’s more excited about gymnastics. She’s enjoying it, and I think this is a redemption for her, and I think she’s going to go out and do an amazing job, and we’re going to support her.”

Biles and Co. will have an audience in the French capital, something they did not have in Tokyo, where the competition was held behind closed doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Oh, my gosh, It’s going to be so amazing,” said Brett McClure, the U.S. men’s high performance director. “We were really lucky to have a taste of it just a few weeks ago at Olympic trials, where we had 16,000 people show up for that event. The energy that comes out of that experience is incredible.

“Tokyo, it was difficult to be able to look up in the stands and see so many empty seats. Obviously understandable, given the time, so yeah, we are so excited to go out there in front of 16,000-plus fans.”

Many of those fans may be cheering for Biles, in addition to their own countries, as she tries to help the U.S. reclaim the team title after finishing as the runner-up in Tokyo.

“This is definitely our redemption tour,” she said after the Olympic trials.