Hernandez and Biles competed together at the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Simone Biles will always have her former Olympic teammate Laurie Hernandez in her corner.
The Paris 2024 hopeful, who just won her ninth U.S. Championship on June 2, will next tackle the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials from June 27-30, and Hernandez is rooting for her the whole way.
“Simone is a big name that will always keep popping up,” Hernandez says of Biles, whom she competed alongside at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. “She’s just a surefire for Team USA [in Paris], to know that she’s going to go out there and be consistent. Her difficulty is so high, and she really is one of the best. You can count on her. You know you’re going to watch greatness when her name pops up.”
If Biles makes the Olympic team, she’ll be the first American woman to make three Olympic gymnastics teams since Dominique Dawes. At the time of the Games, she’ll also be 27 years old, which in the gymnastics world, is “old,” Hernandez, 23, says with a bit of a smile.
“We’re so funny,” Hernandez, who recently partnered with Olay ahead of the Paris Games, adds, while acknowledging that many gymnasts don’t compete for as long as Biles has. “But this is a really exciting year.”
