Already a legend in her sport, Biles has just made history again
Simone Biles is headed to Paris!
The American gymnast, widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time, was named to the women’s gymnastics team on Sunday, June 30 at the end of the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials in Minneapolis, and is off to the Olympic Games next month.
That makes her only the fourth female gymnast in the U.S. to ever qualify for three teams, joining Muriel Grossfeld, Linda Metheny and Dominique Dawes.
“It’ll be wonderful to see her outshine what I had done many decades ago,” Dawes, a 1996 gold medalist, told PEOPLE earlier in the week. “She’s definitely deserved it. I’m sure she’s not only going to help the team medal but also she’s going to individually medal as well.”
“I keep saying this, but I could even see her training for the 2028 Games in L.A. … She is that talented,” Dawes said.
Speaking after trials ended on Sunday, Biles credited her journey, in part, to “trusting the process” — and to regular Thursday therapy appointments — and said, simply, “I knew I’d be back.”
For the 27-year-old, the road to the 2024 Olympics in Paris has been an emotional one, full of triumph and tribulation.
At the Tokyo Games in 2021, she made headlines after she withdrew from four final events, ultimately only taking home a bronze medal for balance beam — even though she was the favorite for gold in several events.
She said she was grappling with what’s known among gymnasts as the “twisties,” in which she lost her ability to sense her body in the air.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles had told fans earlier in Tokyo, after making multiple uncharacteristic errors in the qualifying round.
She cited poor mental health — including the stress of the competitions, as well as the onset of the “twisties” — as the reason for her pulling out.
In 2023, Biles returned to the mat for the first time since competing in Tokyo, vying for gold at the 2023 U.S. Classic — which she clinched in the all-around competition.
Later that year, she went on to take first place in all-around competitions at the 2023 U.S. national championships and 2023 world championships. In 2024, she took home the top title at the 2024 national gymnastics championships as well.
Biles has continued to speak openly about how she sees her evolving place in gymnastics. On June 19, Netflix released the first trailer for her new new four-part docuseries Simone Biles Rising, which is set to hit the streamer on July 17 — just over a week before the start of the 2024 Olympics.
