Simone Biles Signals a Return to Elite Gymnastics
But other gymnastics experts have suspected that Biles might try to return to compete in the vault, which in some respects requires less training time than other events. Her entry into the U.S. Classic may signal that Biles feels she can still be a force in national and international gymnastics, even though U.S.A. Gymnastics said registering for the event “does not guarantee participation.”
Biles’s inclusion on the participant list, alongside past champions and current contenders, does not firmly declare her intention to compete in Paris, but it makes that a possibility. Her coaches are French, and she has said previously that it would be an honor to win a medal for them in their home country.
In Tokyo, Biles had been expected to win at least three individual events while attempting to become the first female gymnast to repeat as all-around Olympic champion in more than half a century. She was heavily promoted as the perhaps the most anticipated star of those Games.
Biles was also among the gymnasts victimized by Lawrence G. Nassar, a former team doctor, in a scandal that rocked the gymnastics world and helped bring to the forefront the widespread sexual abuse that occurs in many Olympic-related sports. She and others publicly criticized U.S.A. Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee in ways that bucked the conventions of a sport that encouraged athletes to remain quiet while competing.
Once the Tokyo Games began, the immense pressure and expectation appeared to wear on Biles, and she lost the ability to determine her spatial awareness in the air, a potentially dangerous condition known in gymnastics as the “twisties.”
Source: The New York Times
