HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — About an hour before her return to competitive gymnastics, Simone Biles launched herself into the air, completed the most difficult vault in her sport and stuck the landing.
And that was, quite literally, just the warmup.
Yes, Biles is officially back. Two years after bowing out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old made her competitive return at the U.S. Classic in a suburb of Chicago on Saturday night. And, to the surprise of no one, she returned with a win.
In front of a packed house and NBC television cameras, Biles notched an all-around score of 59.10, besting a field in which several of her closest U.S. rivals − including Olympic teammates Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee − competed in only some of the four events. Leanne Wong finished second in the all-around competition with a score of 54.10.
“I always kind of knew (I would return), as soon as everything that happened in Tokyo,” Biles told NBC after the meet. “This time I’m doing it for me. I worked a lot on myself. I believe in myself a little bit more. It’s just coming back out here and starting those first steps again.”
Biles is arguably the biggest star in Olympic sports and one of the most accomplished gymnasts of all-time, with four gold medals, 19 world championships and 24 national titles to her name. She has won every all-around competition she’s entered over almost a decade. And she has four eponymous skills, evidence of the ways in which she’s obliterated the boundaries of her sport.
Her return came 732 days after her last competitive appearance, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Heavily favored to win at least four medals at those Games, she withdrew in shocking fashion from the team competition on the very first day of competition, citing mental health issues.
Biles later revealed that she was suffering from the “twisties” − a sudden inability to sense and understand her body positioning while twisting through the air. She only competed in one event thereafter, winning bronze with a stripped-down routine on the balance beam.
“I think it was just the stress factor,” she said several weeks later, in a video posted by one of her sponsors. “It kind of built up over time, and my body and my mind just said no. But even I didn’t know I was going through it until it just happened.”
After Tokyo, Biles didn’t talk about retiring, but she didn’t talk about returning to competition, either. Her personal life drew her focus. She got engaged, and then married, to now-Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens. She launched a new clothing line with Athleta. And she became the youngest athlete to ever be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Then, earlier this year, something changed. Biles’ coach, Cecile Landi, said they got dinner and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant, and Biles expressed an interest in coming back to compete. After her wedding this spring, the training intensified.
“She really wants it for herself,” Landi said Friday. “She’s a married woman. She’s matured. She knows what she wants.”
Here is how Biles fared in her return to competition.
Simone Biles on vault
Talk about going out with a bang. For her final act of the night, Biles landed the same vault she nailed in practice, the Yurchenko double pike. It’s a roundoff back handspring onto the table, then two somersaults in a piked position. The score, even with a deduction of six-tenths of a point, was 15.40 − capping her victory in style.
Simone Biles on floor exercise
This has long been one of Biles’ best events − and, well, it definitely still is. With the crowd roaring at every pass, she showed off a series of brilliant skills, including one that since has been named after her, as well as some of the artistry that is becoming increasingly important. The score: 14.90, with a difficulty of 6.90 and execution of 8.00. “I competed at a high level, and watching her do this sport − it just amazes me,” NBC commentator Sam Peszek, who was on the 2008 Olympic team, said during the television broadcast
Simone Biles on the balance beam
Biles wasn’t perfect here but she turned in another very strong routine, looking incredibly comfortable on what is considered to be the most mentally taxing apparatus. A slight hop on the dismount was one of her few minor errors. The routine netted a score of 14.80 (6.5 difficulty, and 8.3 execution), the highest on the beam so far tonight. Also: Not that there was ever really any doubt, but Biles has now officially qualified for nationals later this month.
Simone Biles on the uneven bars
Biles drew a deafening roar ahead of her uneven bars routine, then showed her experience to pull off a solid performance. She lost her form on a pirouette but saved herself from an even bigger error before a relatively clean dismount, smiling and exchanging a fist bump with coach Laurent Landi as she left the mat. Judges awarded her a score of 14.00, with a difficulty of 6.00 and execution score of 8.00.
Contributing: Nancy Armour
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
