After stepping away, Biles returns to action
TOKYO: Simone Biles is back. The 2016 Olympic gymnastics champion will return to compete in the balance beam final on Tuesday, a little over a week after stepping away from the meet to focus on her mental health.
“We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow — Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!” USA Gymnastics said in a statement.
Biles, 24, won bronze on beam in Rio de Janeiro five years ago and qualified for the eightwoman final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on the first weekend of the Games. She removed herself from the team final on July 27 after a shaky performance on vault during the first rotation. She watched from the sidelines as her three American teammates completed the meet without her; the US took silver behind the Russians.
The six-time Olympic medalist later said she was dealing with issues surrounding air awareness, referred to as “the twisties” in her sport.
Biles qualified for all five individual event finals but took herself out of four: all-around, vault, floor exercise and uneven bars. Considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time and the face of the US Olympic movement when she arrived in Japan, Biles continued to train and be evaluated daily by the USA Gymnastics staff after opting out of multiple finals.
She has also been a fixture in the stands supporting Lee, Mykayla Skinner and Jade Carey while they competed.
Pep talk from Biles helps Carey to gold
Meanwhile, 24 hours after Carey finished last in the women’s vault final, she tumbled her way to gold on the floor exercise while being roared on by cheerleader-in-chief Biles.
“Simone especially was just like helping me let it (the vault) go and move on,” Carey said after beating Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari with a winning score of 14.366. “She just said ‘You know, it happened, and you can’t do anything about it’, and she was just like, ‘Let’s go out and kill floor’. So that’s what I did.”
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