American Biles overcame a terrible disease and returned to gymnastics

“Her story is still going on, nothing is over yet,” experts predicted. And they knew what they were saying. Simone Biles is back again. After sitting out of sports for two years, improving her mental health, enjoying the show and going out, and not on the working platform, a demonstration of swimsuits – not gymnastic at all, Simona takes up the old. And, it seems, does not intend to rest on the laurels of the past. Intend to surprise. And, of course, win.

Simone Biles, all the time that she was not in the big game, no one, of course, in the world of sports forgot. Four-time Olympic champion, nineteen times world champion! And in memory, and in history, she is forever. The actually disrupted Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, and the starts missed by the artistic gymnastics star then stopped the medal growth. But that seems to have been temporary.

At Tokyo 2020, Simone arrived as the undisputed favorite and had to defend her titles and the all-around championship title “to keep the crown in the USA.” But Simone loudly, unexpectedly, vaguely and dramatically withdrew from the competition. It seems that when she started performing, she missed almost everything: team all-around (after the first type – vault), personal all-around, floor exercises, vault, uneven bars. But nevertheless she reached the finals of the exercises on the balance beam, won bronze.

She did not confirm the medical reasons for which she interrupted her performances in the team all-around, she stated that she was not injured at all. She said something else – she did not want to continue to compete because of a “small damage to pride” after a failed vault. She received silver in the team all-around together with her colleagues.

Later, after the Olympic Games, she tried to explain what happened during the fatal jump: “I made one and a half turns instead of 2.5, but this was not a technical error. I lost my orientation in space. And it’s very dangerous. It’s a miracle that I landed on two feet. Another person after this could have been taken out on a stretcher. It was then that I told the coach that I could not continue … Imagine that you lived until the age of 30 with good eyesight, but one morning you wake up and realize that you can’t see a damn thing. But you are told that you must go on with your daily work as if you still have vision. But you are blind!”

The American team, in the language of Biles, received a great damage to pride in Tokyo. It was applied by our gymnasts – Angelina Melnikova, Victoria Listunova, Lilia Akhaimova, Vladislava Urazova. They did not miss the chance and won the Olympic Games as a team. And even American journalists were forced to admit that it was not the tragedy of one Simone that had an effect on the finale. “We have recorded the worst performance by the US women’s team in over a decade of this. Even in qualifying, we lost to Russia, and then lost to the Russians in the final. The ROC team is now celebrating victory in both the men’s team all-around and the women’s. The Russians turned out to be a serious threat to us, ”the authors of Sports Illustrated emphasized.

Simone Biles seemed to be digging into her mental problems, which everyone was talking about. Who – maliciously, who – with speculation, someone with regret. The gymnastic world, to his great credit, supported: colleagues from different countries sent words of love. Our gymnasts were no exception, they called the athlete great and wanted to rediscover themselves.

She is said to have returned to normal training two months ago. But first she married an American football player, it happened in May. Then she began serious preparations for the tournament – the last internal start, which could make it possible to break into the big platform this season. Result: Simone Biles beautifully won the individual all-around in front of full stands, stunning, it seems, even herself.

And so, the start happened. As is the return. On the shells, she again looks confident and with complications: beam and freestyle, a little worse – bars. The vault aims at history. Before the Tokyo Olympics, Biles showed how she performs the most difficult new jump. (Double somersault with Yurchenko’s angle.) If I had repeated it already in Tokyo, I would have written myself into a name story: Biles jump. (To get a name element, you need to show it at the international start.) So, at the very first tournament after the break, she demonstrated it again. And even with fines, she got 15.4 points.

No one discards home refereeing, but Biles performs on the platform not only confidently, but powerfully. Simona won the individual all-around with a total of 59.1 points. (At the last World Championship, Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won with a total of 57.332 points.)

Some time ago, the gymnast claimed that she did not end her career, she continues to work on her psychological state. “As for Paris 2024, I would say that I will be there no matter what. I just don’t know if I’m an athlete or a spectator, but if I do decide to train, then obviously I’ll have to give 100 percent, so I probably won’t hold back.”

Now we can only state that Biles doesn’t really seem to be holding himself back. And the current state characterizes as follows: I am in better mental and physical shape than before the Games in Tokyo. “Everyone who applauded just melted my heart because they still believe in me. I’m shocked. But so far everything is moving in the right direction. I’m still a little nervous, but I think it’s subconscious. I know what my body is capable of, that it is prepared. So I just have to do my training work,” Simone said in an interview with NBC Sports after the qualifying start for the US Championship.

As it should be in beautiful stories, the gymnast said a few words for everyone to see and the American football player Jonathan Owens, who became her husband: “Tears of joy. I return to the sport surrounded by the love you gave me. Thank you that you believe in me”.

Will Simona pass the national selection at the US Championships to take part in the World Championships? Well, if you do not keep in mind a force majeure like Tokyo, Simone Biles simply has no chance of not getting into the team. So the Belgian Antwerp in the fall should see the star in all its glory. She stopped being blind on the platform.