Spotlight continues to shine on Biles after success in Rio
Spring gymnast puts focus on tour, will worry about 2020 decision later
Simone Biles was able to walk into a local shopping mall just like any other shopper Friday to get a new phone. But she needed an escort from security to get out, which is about to become an everyday experience as she begins her post-Olympics life in the spotlight.
Biles, 19, of Spring, winner of four gold medals and a bronze at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, spent the last few days at home with her family after returning from promotional appearances in New York with her USA Gymnastics teammates.
She held a brief news conference Saturday at a local hospital, but her postOlympics whirl continues Sunday when she joins her teammates at MTV’s Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. After that, she will begin rehearsals Sept. 5 for a 30-city promotional tour that includes a Sept. 30 stop at Toyota Center.
Other than a brief brush with paparazzi in New York as the “Final Five” team visited the Empire State Building, Biles said life after returning from Rio following the Aug. 21 Closing Ceremony, during which she carried the United States flag, has been relatively calm.
“I don’t know what chaos feels like yet,” she said. Plenty of fanfare
But even an Olympic champion isn’t immune to technology flubs, as she found when her phone began “bugging out,” which required her mall visit Friday.
“I got a new phone and was trying to send my photos to the cloud and computer,” she said. “I don’t know what happened, because I’m not a tech wizard, but I lost everything. But most of the photos are online, so it’s OK.”
She said she has thus far enjoyed interacting with well-wishers, “but sometimes they freak out and I don’t know what to do. I’m like, ‘Are you OK? Would you like to take a picture?’ ”
Biles is expected to take a year or more off from training and has been uncertain about her plans for the 2020 Olympics.
“I’m focused on getting my schedule down for the next week,” she said. “2020 is a long way away, but it will come fast. I know I have a lot of things coming up, so I will need to take some time off from the gym and decide what to do.
“But 2020 in Tokyo will be very fun, and hopefully I’ll be there.”
Of course, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that she’ll be there as a specta- tor, not as a competitor.
“I think every day you need something as a goal to look forward to,” she said. “Right now, I’m focusing on the tour. There are a lot of things I look forward to before 2020. Even if I do take a year or a year and a half off, I’ll be OK.” Name game
After the news conference at Houston Methodist’s Willowbrook hospital, Biles visited with Marikathyn Cacchione of Cypress, who on Thursday gave birth to a baby girl, Lena Carmela, as well as with her husband, Timothy, and the family’s four other children.
She also said she is in full support of the trend among parents to name newborn daughters Simone to honor her and swimmer Simone Manuel, her fellow Houston area gold medalist.
“Simone is a very unique name, and you don’t hear a lot of it. But for more Simones to come up in the world, that’s pretty cool,” she said. david.barron@chron.com twitter.com/dfbarron