a magnet with its own shine in Paris 2024, a scare and the same power that made her the best gymnast of all time

Simone Biles returned to the Olympic stages and shone at the Bercy Arena. And not only because of the thousands of silver sparkles that radiated from his competition suit every time he performed a spin in the air or one of those extraordinary jumps or simply moved around the stadium, attracting everyone’s gaze and generating ovation after ovation. After the tough experience of Tokyo 2020, the American returned to the most important event in world sport more mature and with a strengthened mentality – after taking a break after the Japanese Games to take care of her mental health – but with her talent intact and with the same power and explosiveness that transformed her into the best gymnast of all time.

In a packed stadium, adorned in more than one corner with the stars and stripes flag of her country, the owner of 23 world titles and eight Olympic golds She competed in the second qualifying subdivision of artistic gymnastics in Paris 2024. She performed superb exercises on beam, floor, vault – with the Biles II, that pirouette that only she can perform, included – and uneven bars. She was not slowed down by even a discomfort in her left calf that she felt when she was warming up for her second exercise. And she gave smiles and exuded charisma, while she dominated her rivals with extremely demanding routines, which left her, at least momentarily (when there were three more series to be played), as the best in the all-around classification.

Nobody wanted to miss Biles’ first performance in Paris. Not even the thousands of girls and teenagers who took up a large part of the seats in the imposing venue and who called and greeted her every time she passed by. Not even the actors Tom Cruise y Jessica Chastainthe singers Lady Gaga y Ariana Grandethe famous editor of Vogue, Anna Wintourand the rapper Snoop Doggall present in the stands, which erupted with a deafening clamor when Simone entered the scene, along with her American teammates, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.

Automatically, all eyes fell on her and so did the camera lenses; and her face appeared on the enormous screen suspended from the ceiling. When she saw herself, she smiled and waved to the people, who cheered her again, as she would do again and again and again. She very quickly adopted her competition mode: she put on a serious face, closed her eyes, sighed and went to the first device to try it out. Without the jacket and pants of the team’s official uniform, her mesh made it impossible to lose sight of her..

After attentively following the performance of her friend Chiles, sitting on a refrigerator, tensing her shoulders when her compatriot performed a complicated exercise and applauding each good execution, and celebrating what Lee and Rivera had done, her turn on the beam came. The long-awaited moment to know if she still had that special fire inside. The uncertainty disappeared quickly, because Biles dazzled.

With the entire stadium looking at her, because at that point, the other gymnasts had already completed their rotations, He entered the device with great confidence and developed an impeccable routine, in which he linked the elements fluidly, never lost his balance, executed the jumps without hesitation and dismounted with a precise double backflip. And as if removing all the tension from within, when his feet were firm on the mat after landing, he smiled hugely, hit his chest and celebrated from a distance with his entire team, who jumped and applauded the return of the GOAT. The score: 14,733.

It was the perfect start to a day in which Biles enjoyed every minute. Not even the scare due to the discomfort that appeared when she was preparing to compete on the ground and that forced her to leave the venue with the team doctor could make her day miserable. It’s just that, as she later told Cecile Landiher coach, the pain never threatened to take her out of competition. “He felt something, that’s all. He had already felt it a couple of weeks ago”he explained.

Perhaps that problem was responsible for his landings in that second rotation not being as clean. On the first diagonal, in which he executed a big triple double, for example, he went out of bounds of the mat. After completing her exercise, she sat on the little ladder that descends from the tapestry and remained thoughtful for a few seconds, as if something was not stopping her. She also dominated with a score of 14.600, which the public considered very low and reproached with whistles.

While waiting for that evaluation, he looked up and saw himself on the screen. And she noticed that some strands of hair had escaped from the invisible ones. She quickly adjusted them, because even in that regard, Biles is a perfectionist.

He had a fun moment when he was preparing to jump, one of his strong points. In one of the test attempts, She felt the pain again and, in order not to strain her leg, she decided to crawl back to the other end, generating laughter from all her companions.. She spent several minutes sitting on the floor, talking to the doctor and when it was her time, she appeared on the scene with bandaged ankle. Although he had no problems perfectly executing the Biles II – or Yurchenko with a double backflip – and taking just a step back upon landing.

Not satisfied, he returned to the starting point gesturing “One more, one more (uno más)”. In total, he took 15,300, compared to the 15,800 of the first attempt (with her own exercise) and 14,800 for the second, which she celebrated after limping a little to meet her teammates.

At that point, the American seemed to have gotten rid of her nerves or doubts (if she had them). She had gone through the best apparatus of hers without any major problems and she loosened up a little more. And when the theme from Mission Impossible began to be heard in the venue, accompanying the appearance of Tom Cruise on the screen, she made evident her complicity with Chiles. They looked at each other, smiled and stood back to back and rehearsed a pose with their hands as if holding two guns.

The closure, in the uneven bars, was also impeccable, with a 14.333 that left her very happy. It was evident by the huge smile she broke out upon landing, by the heartfelt hug she shared with the entire team, and by that little coordinated celebration dance she did with her friend Jordan.

The numbers left by Biles’ return: 59,566 points, ahead of two of her teammates, Lee, gold in Tokyo, with 56,132 and Chiles with 56,065. The three of them were leading, with three subdivisions remaining (and the presentation of the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, the maximum threat for the Americans), the classification for the all-around final. And the United States was first in the team event with 172.296 points, followed by Italy, China and Great Britain.

The sensations that his return left, all positive. Simone looked happy, mature, whole and ready to delight the world once again with her enormous talent. She already had her first performance at the Bercy Arena. But the best is yet to come.