Simone Biles' Comeback
From the twisties in Tokyo to gold in Paris. Simone Biles stepped back at the Tokyo Olympics to protect her health, then returned three years later to win three more golds in Paris.
Biles in Paris, 2024: Ocoudis, CC0
The greatest of her era
By 2021 Simone Biles was already the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history. She had won four golds at the 2016 Rio Olympics, including the all-around, and she performed skills so hard that several are named after her. Her power and air sense let her do twists and flips that no other woman in the world was attempting.
She went to the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 after a one-year delay, as the face of the Games and the favourite for as many as five gold medals.
Biles was raised by her grandparents, Ron and Nellie Biles, in Spring, Texas, who adopted her and her younger sister. She discovered gymnastics on a day-care field trip at age six, and coaches noticed her power at once.
The twisties
During the team final in Tokyo, Biles lost track of where she was in the air on a vault. Gymnasts call this the twisties: a sudden loss of the body's sense of position while twisting. At the speed and height she flies, it can lead to serious injury. She pulled out of the team final and then most of her individual events.
Some people criticised her, but many athletes praised her for being open about mental health and for putting her safety first. She returned at the end of the Games to win bronze on the balance beam, using a routine without the twists that were troubling her.
The road back
Biles took time away, worked with a therapist and rebuilt her confidence slowly. She returned to competition in 2023 and won the world all-around title for a record sixth time. On vault she landed the Yurchenko double pike, a vault so difficult that it now carries her name.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics she led the United States to team gold, won the all-around gold eight years after her first, and won gold on vault and silver on floor. She finished with 11 Olympic medals, more than any other American gymnast.
The documentary series Simone Biles Rising followed her road back to the Olympics, including the hard days nobody saw.
The real victory
Biles' comeback was not only about medals. It showed that stepping back can be the brave choice, and that an athlete can protect her health and still return to the very top. For many young gymnasts, that lesson matters as much as any routine she has ever landed.
- Biles in Paris, 2024: Ocoudis, CC0
- Rio, 2016: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 br
Text written by Shining Champion.
