San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Biles displays her all-around mettle
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With one more day of competition to go, this already might be Simone Biles’ most eventful U.S. gymnastics championships since she burst upon the scene as an unheralded phenom in 2013.
Since arriving in Kansas City early last week, Biles, 22, the four-time Olympic gold medalist from Spring, has tweaked her own legend and her snarkier critics by wearing a leotard with a bedazzled outline of a goat, as in the acronym for “Greatest of All Time.”
She has spoken frankly and with heretofore unexpressed emotion about the anger that accompanies the pain associated with the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal and USA Gymnastics’ inability to protect her and other athletes when they were most vulnerable.
She has vocally displayed the frustration that comes with great talent and high expectations when things don’t go according to plan and there is no one to blame but yourself.
And, of course, she has displayed physical skills that no female gymnast and less than a handful of male gymnasts have ever attempted.
As women’s gymnastics emerges from an era in which so much was hidden and suppressed for so long, Biles’ greatest gift might be the frank honesty with which she observes herself and her sport.
“It all depends on risk and reward,” she said Friday night after a performance in which she built a comfortable lead over her competitors in the women’s allaround but fell short of expectations on each of her four events.
Her reference was to the challenging skills she attempts to perform on her way back to the 2020 Olympics, but this week has been about Biles expressing herself with renewed confidence and vulnerability at the same time.
It began with the GOAT leotard, which she wore on a lark during Wednesday’s training session. The idea was born of grumbling that arose from the U.S. Classic meet last month in Louisville, Ky., where Biles and her World Gymnastics Centre teammates wore leotards with their last names on the back.
Names on uniforms, of course, have been in most sports for decades. But in gymnastics, which has for years worked on the philosophy that the individual is subservient to the team, it rubbed some fans the wrong way.
“We saw there were a lot of bad (comments),” Biles said. “But I was born with this last name. It wasn’t out of cockiness or anything. We thought it would be different. A lot of athletes in professional sports have their last name (on uniforms), and it’s something they have a lot of pride in wearing.
“With the goat (outline), it was just funny. We were seeing all these comments, so if the haters can take a jab, we can do a jab back, but in a fun way.”
After all, since so many have said Biles is the GOAT of gymnastics, why not acknowledge it?
“You can go your entire career and people will tell you you’re great, but the minute you think you’re great or you say you’re good, it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re so cocky, so cancel her.’
“At the end of the day, there should be a time when we can celebrate when we do a good routine or if you’ve been on a winning streak. It’s something you should have pride in and not be cocky about it. It’s special, and hopefully girls will watch and learn about it as long as it is in a good, respectful way.”
The GOAT leotard discussion was followed a few minutes later by a more somber exchange in which Biles elaborated on continued revelations in which USA Gymnastics and even the FBI mishandled the Nassar investigation.
“It’s hard coming here for an organization and having had them fail us so many times,” Biles said. “We had one goal, and we’ve done everything that they asked us for, even when we didn’t want to, and they couldn’t do one damn job. … You couldn’t protect us.”
A day later, Li Li Leung, the president of USA Gymnastics, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it tries to settle Nassar-related lawsuits and faces loss of recognition by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said, “Our organization historically has silenced our gymnasts, and I am 100 percent supportive of giving our athletes a voice.”
Leung hopes to meet with Biles after the championships. That reflects the degree to which Biles can influence matters in a way she could not have done before the Nassar revelations and the resulting ouster of the old order personified by Martha Karolyi, the famously controlling national team coordinator, and Steve Penny, the longtime federation president who faces criminal charges in Walker County.
As for Biles the performer, she laid herself open in Friday’s competition as well by attempting two unprecedented moves — a triple-twisting double somersault on floor and a double-twisting double somersault dismount on balance beam — and by making it clear to all that her inability to land the former was not acceptable.
“Before, I felt that like when I would fall it’s OK, but now, even though I’m still on top, I get frustrated because I train better than I compete sometimes,” she said.
Biles said she was unaffected Friday by the emotional upheaval at midweek, adding, “They’re completely separate. Every day I try to turn the page, and once I come in (to the arena) I try to do what I’m supposed to do. It’s my work. I’m very good at separating the two.”
She likely will attempt both twisting elements again Sunday night at the Sprint Center en route to what almost assuredly will be a record-tying sixth allaround title.
“It’s how you come back that makes you different and makes you win,” said Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, one of Biles’ coaches. “It was important for her to fight (after the near-fall on floor routine).”
Sunday night, then, will be another day at the office, a chance for Biles to make more history doing what she enjoys and, in her own way, influencing gymnasts and gymnastics for years to come.
“I compete,” she said, “for perfection.”
And even when she falls short, she’s still the best.