Gymnast Biles plans return to competition this summer
Simone Biles, the fourtime Olympic gold medalist and gymnastics superstar, will return to competition this summer, USA Gymnastics announced Wednesday.
Biles has not competed since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and had not announced any competitive plans, but she is on the roster for the U.S. Classic to be held outside Chicago on Aug. 5.
Biles, 26, will be joined at the com- petition by fellow Olympic all-around gold medalist Sunisa Lee, who also has not performed at the elite level since the Tokyo Games.
Lee, however, competed for Auburn for two seasons and had already mentioned her intention to contend for a spot on the 2024 U.S. Olympic team, despite an unspecified health issue involving her kidneys earlier this year.
Biles entered the Tokyo Games as the reigning Olympic all-around champion and was expected to vie for as many as five gold medals. But during the team final, the first women’s gymnastics medal event, she withdrew after performing on one apparatus. She later withdrew from the allaround competition and the finals for vault, uneven bars and floor exercise, citing a need to prioritize her mental health.
Biles was rattled by a phenomenon known in the sport as the “twisties,” which gymnasts describe as a disorienting feeling while flipping through the air that can be dangerous. Biles finished her Olympic performance by earning a bronze medal in the balance beam.
After Biles withdrew, the U.S. team won the silver medal — ending the Americans’ dominant streak of team gold medals at world championships and the Olympics that began in 2011. Lee then won the all-around gold medal, becoming the fifth consecutive American to win the Olympic title.
Biles has won 25 medals, including 19 golds, at world championships and is widely considered the best gymnast in the sport’s history. She pushed the boundaries of women’s gymnastics by mastering extremely difficult skills, including a Yurchenko double pike vault, a double-twisting double tuck beam dismount and a triple-twisting double tuck on floor.
Fellow Tokyo Olympians Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles will also compete at the U.S. Classic in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Both gymnasts represented the United States at world championships last year.
Lee, Carey and Chiles — as well as Tokyo alternates Kayla DiCello and Leanne Wong, who are also slated to compete at the U.S. Classic — are part of a growing trend in which American gymnasts do not abandon their elite careers after they begin competing in the NCAA.
Chiles (UCLA) and DiCello (Florida) are both deferring a year of college to train for the Paris Games. Lee has said her college career is over after two seasons. Carey, the floor champion in Tokyo, plans to stay at Oregon State, compete in the
2024 NCAA season and then pursue a spot on the Olympic team.