Breathtaking Biles is the greatest-ever sportswoman
After a break to help with her mental health, the American dominated the world championships in Belgium and has now moved to top of the GOAT debate
Last week’s World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was dominated by Simone Biles, who won the team event, the prestigious all-round title, took silver on the vault despite falling upon landing, and on the final day won two golds with beautiful precision on the beam and then in joyous style on the floor. She is the most decorated gymnast of all time, with 37 medals across world championships and Olympics.
All of her success in Antwerp was achieved with compelling panache and brilliance. If you win a medal even after falling it means that you took on the most challenging of routines. It means perfection in a lesser manoeuvre is not enough to maintain the mantle of supremacy and you have to keep pushing to improve. Her floor routine was not quite inch perfect but she attempted somersaults of such difficulty that her peers must have felt deflated no matter their own best efforts. It gave her a sixth world title on the floor.
An exceptional case can be made for Biles being the greatest sportswoman of all time. She is a renowned figure who has proved her durability in an incredibly demanding competition, and tickets for her routines at the Paris Olympics will be feverishly sought after. Through history women have had to fight for recognition in sport – and that is one of many reasons why it is almost futile to compare men and women in GOAT debates – but none has had to suffer what Biles has suffered.
The technical brilliance of Biles on the vault has to be seen in context. At the Tokyo Olympics she suffered the “twisties” on the apparatus. They are nasty and debilitating. “Literally cannot tell up from down,” was how Biles described it. “It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body.”
Introducing: The "Biles II" vault.@Simone_Biles now has FIVE elements named after her, after landing a Yurchenko double pike vault at #Antwerp2023, scoring 15.266!#RoadToParis2024 | @USAGym | @TeamUSApic.twitter.com/Eci4A06Ypy
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) October 1, 2023
Many gymnasts suffer the twisties at some point in their career but for Biles they came after some wobbles in qualification in Japan after which she spoke of feeling the “weight of the world” on her shoulders. Imagine being high in the air and not sure if you will land on your neck. A gymnast has no choice but to pull out yet there was criticism that she was somehow letting her teammates down even though there was no more determined cheerleader.
She took a break to focus on her mental health, the sort of move that tends to bring opprobrium as well as praise, but she held firm, pleased to remind the world that gymnasts were not there, as she put it, simply to deliver entertainment.
Overshadowing all of this is the impact on Biles of the shocking Larry Nassar sexual assault trial. In 2018 Biles stated that the former USA Gymnastics team doctor had assaulted her. She was inspired to do so after hearing testimony from other victims at Nassar’s court case. He was sentenced to over 300 years in jail for sexually assaulting children and possessing child pornography and was stabbed in jail in July by a fellow inmate. Abuse victims can struggle to function on a basic, day-to-day level. Biles, whose early childhood was spent in foster care, kept winning.
She married Jonathan Owens, a defensive back for the Green Bay Packers, this year and appears comfortable with life. She smiles more readily and looks refreshed and confident. On Friday in Antwerp she stumbled unexpectedly during the floor exercise but almost seemed to find the mistake amusing.
Biles has emerged from awfully dark times to find supreme form. In qualifying in Belgium she delivered the Yurchenko double pike vault, which has 2 and a half flips and is the toughest move for women on the apparatus and will now be known as the Biles II, as she has broken new ground before and already has another vault manoeuvre named after her.
It is not only the vault where she is daring; Biles has skills that bear her name on the beam and floor. Earning one eponymous manoeuvre is for most elite gymnasts the holy grail.
Some may say that artistic gymnastics is not serious enough yet it requires expertise not seen in most sports. Most people can kick a ball or throw one or thrash around in water or run on a track, but very few of us can jump on to a beam that is four inches wide and somersault along it elegantly and fearlessly.
Gymnasts need power as they approach the vault and strength on the bars and a desire to defy gravity on the floor while interpreting a piece of music under dramatic competition conditions. At the elite level a competitor does not just turn up to do what they can do, they have to respond to what rivals have or may yet deliver and adapt, even if that means a leap in the difficulty of a move. It is risk management on the hoof rarely seen in other sports.
Biles tackles these challenges with professionalism, natural ability and beauty. She takes your breath away. Those in Antwerp felt privileged to be in the same space not least because there is little chance of her medal haul being overtaken. It is worth noting that, at 26, Biles is older than most of her competition, making her achievement all the more impressive. “I just keep on amazing myself,” she said and, yes, her comeback is tinged with a fairytale-like quality that deserves broader recognition.
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