Simone Biles flips back from ‘twisties’ to secure record win

The four-time Olympic gold medallist marked her return to competition after two years out by becoming the first person to win the US Gymnastics Championships eight times.

Simone Biles competes in the uneven bars in San Jose. Picture: AFP

Simone Biles has won a record eighth all-around title at the US Gymnastics Championships, two years after she missed most of the Tokyo Olympics while suffering a bout of the “twisties”, the phenomenon in which gymnasts lose their sense of where they are in the air.

In another step on a comeback trail pointing towards the Paris Games next year, the four-time Olympic gold medallist electrified the SAP Centre crowd in San Jose with a soaring floor routine that included a rock-solid landing on her signature tumbling pass of double layout with a half-twist.

It was her final event of the competition and brought ecstatic fans to their feet, earning a score of 15.400 for a triumphant all-around total of 118.450 points.

Biles broke the record for most all-around titles for a man or woman, set by Alfred Jochim with his seventh in 1933 and matched by Biles in 2021.

Ten years after winning her first US all-around title, 26-year-old Biles became the oldest woman to seize the national all-around title. “I’ve been doing it for so long, I feel like I don’t think about numbers,” she told NBC. “I think about my performance and I think overall I hit eight for eight. I guess it’s a lucky number this year.”

Biles’s triumph came in just the second competition of her return from a two-year break, which followed her withdrawal from multiple events at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Kaliya Lincoln, Simone Biles, and Shi Jones celebrate after placing second, first, and third in the floor exercise at US Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, Picture: AFP

She was the sport’s dominant force and out to defend four gold medals won in Rio de Janeiro when she pulled out of most of her events in Tokyo citing the “twisties”. Her decision to withdraw was widely hailed as a watershed moment for the issue of mental health in elite sports.

Biles did earn a balance beam bronze in Tokyo, and now she looks set to contend again at next month’s world championships in Antwerp and, by extension, the Paris Olympics next year.

But as she remains focused on her mental wellbeing, Biles declined to elaborate on the “personal goals” fuelling her latest return to the sport, which started with an all-around title at the US Classic three weeks ago.

“I like to keep them personal, just so that I know what I’m aiming for,” she said.

“I think it’s better that way. I’m trying to move a little bit differently this year than I have in the past. I think it’s working so far.

“So I’m going to keep it a little bit secretive.”

Biles added “not yet” when asked if she could share whether those goals included Paris.

Certainly, Biles, who has won 19 world championships gold medals, has shown before she can come back.

She won four straight US all-around titles from 2013-16, then took a break after her dominant performance at the Rio Games before returning to win two more in 2018-19. After the Covid pandemic wiped out the 2020 championships and pushed back the Olympics, she won a national all-around title before the drama of her highly anticipated Tokyo campaign.

Her “amazing” reception from fans in San Jose, Biles said on Sunday, was a morale-building reminder that “everybody in here believes in me” as she heads to next month’s training camp where the US women’s team for Antwerp will be chosen. “So I just need to start believing in myself a little bit more.”

AFP