Four golds, 19 world titles but this was Simone’s finest hour
BRONZE IS GREAT TWIST IN THE TALE FOR BRAVE BILES
SIMONE BILES has rewritten the gymnastics records books with her skyscraper-high pile of medals, but she can rarely have felt so proud of one as the modest bronze she delivered on the beam yesterday.
Four Olympic golds and 19 world titles make a third place seem a little tame by comparison.
But after her turmoil of the past week any medal, with the sporting world looking on and holding its collective breath, represented a career-defining show of resilience.
Just stepping into the Ariake Gymnastics Arena was a victory of sorts given the mental hell she has gone through since pulling out of the team event after one rotation.
The finals of the all-around, the floor, the vault and the uneven bars had come and gone without one of the Games’s biggest draws as she wrestled with her demons – the twisties has now become part of the sporting vernacular.
But Biles confronted them, boxed clever with her routine and rose again to match her finish on the beam in Rio five years ago.
She said: “It definitely feels a little bit sweeter than 2016’s bronze medal because I went out there and did a really good performance.
“I had to pull out of all my other finals just because I wasn’t cleared to do them – I physically couldn’t twist in the air, I would just keep crashing, the mind’s not there.
“I didn’t think I was going to be cleared to do beam but I went into training and asked if I could change my beam dismount and we went ahead and did that.
“I was kind of shaking I was so nervous but it means the world that I can come out here and compete before these Games are over.” As
Biles was introduced she was afforded a rousing reception from the 200 or so on hand to see her appearance, including IOC president Thomas Bach.
The applause was laced with concern. Would she be up to it? Performing on a 10cm-wide beam with the eyes of the world trained upon her was the ultimate high-wire act. She would not have been human if she did not entertain her own doubts.
But Biles, third of the eight to go, silenced all the noise around and inside her. Save for one minor tremor, the American was rock solid, commanding her streamlined stage as if the build-up had been serenity itself. As she landed the toned-down, twist-free, double pike somersault dismount perfectly, she broke into a broad smile and clasped her hand to her heart.
Her mark of 14 ensured bronze behind Tang Xijing and winner Guan Chenchen, both from China.
At 16, Chenchen is the future of gymnastics.
At 24, Biles has decisions to make about what comes next, but after climbing her Everest just to make it back to competition in Tokyo she has decided that now is not the time to do so.
“It’s definitely too early to start thinking about anything,” she said.
If yesterday is the last we see of Biles, she will have gone out with her head held high and be remembered as an athlete who not only changed gymnastics.
Thanks to her bold lead, mental health across sport will be viewed differently from now on.
“I feel good about it because it’s very eye opening to see so many people struggle with the same things I’m going through,” she said.
“It kind of sucks, it’s not a fun club to be a part of but at least it brings awareness so we can all work through our problems, because at the end of the day we’re humans, we’re not just athletes.”