WITNESSING SIMONE BILES compete three times – in the flesh – in two weeks is life-changing.
I exclaimed this on a podcast after the first occasion, immediately cringing at my own hyperbole but, now, after times two and three (and four if you count her being in my eyeline at the Stade de France) it feels… correct?
Seeing that level of supremacy in real life is, of course, astonishing. Her gravity-defying abilities on the vault and the floor, in particular, could make you believe in the power of humans to do anything. Fix the climate crisis? Of course we can. Figure out peace in the Middle East? Why not? Shut down the dark corners of the internet? Entirely plausible.
For each of her 2024 Paris appearances, the stands were packed with budding gymnasts, curious adults and a bunch of celebrities (Snoop Dogg, Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Jessica Chastain and Anna Wintour on day one alone) because she was the hottest ticket in town.
Her draw, quite simply, is that she is the best.
She soars higher, for longer. She hits harder. She twists more. Some of it is effortless. More of it looks as difficult as it is, because she is pushing boundaries.
There is no Maradona to her Messi.
There are few people who don’t want to be within touching distance of that level of greatness at some point in their lives.
But this can-do sense of humanity didn’t just come from her moves and her scores though. It was also through her mere presence in the gymnasium, persevering over the past three years to make it back to the Olympics after her own mental health troubles and a case of the ‘twisties’ – a terrifying phenomenon where a gymnast’s brain and body disconnect from each other.
During qualification on Sunday 28 August, she bounded onto the 10-centimetre wide beam and vanquished the Tokyo Games.
With a full twist double back somersault to finish the routine, she came away happy with a score of 14.733.
The common way of describing the impressive brain function of pre-eminent sports stars is that they perceive time differently so can see things in slow motion to allow them to make quick – and smart – decisions. Think Clare’s Tony Kelly’s wonder goal in the All-Ireland hurling final against Cork.
Biles, however, seems to have mastered and tamed gravity. It is the only way she can fit in three turns as she comes off the vault. Or be disappointed after doing a triple twist double back somersault on the floor.
Although I was in the Bercy for those awesome feats, my eyes kept being drawn to little moments happening across the arena. Some which didn’t even involve the Texas resident.
Biles herself – despite the tension and pressure of return – smiled and waved throughout the competition. Her coach, Cecile Landi, never left her side and in those rarer moments of disappointment offered a warm, maternal embrace.
Jordan Chiles fistpumped and lept in delight when she dismounted the beam. The pair, obvious friends off the mats, have a laugh together as they take turns competing on the uneven bars. The pursuit of happiness, as well as greatness, is underlined when they dance as Biles finishes with a 14.433 score.
My notes from that session during Day 2 of the Olympic Games include the lines, “There is a joy to gymnastics that wasn’t always there in the past.”; “Everyone looks healthier.”; “Women, not girls.”; “Is it a reclaiming?”; “Is it real?”; “Why?”
Intrigued, I kept going back. I kept observing. I kept asking questions. I kept reading what gymnasts themselves were saying.
***
Reports into abuse in gymnastics have been undertaken in countries around the world, notably the US, Australia, Switzerland and the UK, in recent years.
The Whyte Review, co-commissioned by UK Sport and Sport England and published in June 2022, found issues of physical and emotional abuse were systemic within British gymnastics.
Examples of practises uncovered included coaches sitting on athletes; gymnasts being made train on injuries and being punished for needing the toilet; teenagers having food withdrawn or withheld from them; and adults shouting and swearing at those in their care.
One former elite gymnast told the inquiry that she was made to stand on the beam for two hours because she was anxious about trying a skill. Slurs such as ‘you have a beer belly’ or ‘your thighs are disgusting’ were reported. The athletes hid food in ceiling tiles.
“The tyranny of the scales was coach-led and quite unnecessary,” Whyte wrote, adding that the scale of emotional abuse was ‘far larger than British Gymnastics had appreciated’.
The numbers show they should have known: 3,800 complaints in 12 years were directed to the organisation.
Gymnasts for Change, an organisation advocating for athlete-centred gymnastics, says that the sport has experienced a global reckoning since the 2016 USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal.
Dr Natalie Barker-Ruchti, associate professor in Sports Science at the School of Health Sciences at Orebro University, Sweden, says there are four legal definitions of abuse that have been prevalent in the sport: emotional or psychological violence; physical violence and boundary violations; sexual violence; and neglect.
Her research considers the significance of the transition gymnastics went through in the late 1960s – from a sport dominated by calisthenics and dance performed by women with women’s bodies – to the acrobatisation of gymnastics in the 1970s and 1980s, where the sport became characterised by risk and difficulty and was performed by prepubescent girls.
According to her and Gymnasts for Change, “The era of acrobatisation was accompanied by assumptions that difficult moves could only be learned in childhood and could only be performed by children – ushering in a new ideal of the female gymnast as a submissive child with no voice who needed to be dominated by the control of their coach.”
Simone Biles is 27 years old now. She is the oldest all-around gold medalist in 72 years. There were 10 athletes competing in artistic gymnastics older than her. The minimum age for competition is now 16. It was the first time ever that two former Olympic champions faced off in the all-around women’s competition.
“The longevity of this sport has been totally changed. Simone has changed that,” Chiles said after US trials.
Longevity, experience and strong female bodies were on show on every apparatus over the past two weeks. Despite teenager-dominated teams from China, Japan and Romania, the ideal of a ‘submissive child with no voice who needed to be dominated by the control of their coach’ is no longer in vogue.
Gymnasts in one of the most remarkable stories of this century found their voice to ensure justice was served against child sex abuser Larry Nassar, a former US Gymnastics national team physician. His victim count is now up to at least 265.
Famously, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman took to the stand to direct her message to the disgraced doctor.
“Larry, you do realise now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing,” she said. “The tables have turned, Larry. We are here. We have our voices, and we are not going anywhere. And now, Larry, it’s your turn to listen to me.”
She added: “I am also here to tell you to your face, Larry, that you have not taken gymnastics away from me. I love this sport and that love is stronger than the evil that resides in you, and those who enabled you to hurt many people.
“If over these many years, just one adult listened, and had the courage and character to act, this tragedy could have been avoided.”
Raisman, her best friend Simone Biles and many of the 265 other women – elite and non-elite – got to work to reclaim their sport.
Known now as much for her advocacy for safe sport as much as her London 2012 exploits, Raisman returned to the gym as a viewer for the first time last month for US trials.
The crowd’s reception for her was enormous.
Not only had she spoken up against Nassar, she had started to dismantle the whole culture set up around Bela and Martha Karolyi, the long-time coaches of US female gymnasts.
Biles had never really been fully on that inside track, shunned initially as she was by the Karolyis. So when her talent became undeniable, she returned to Karolyi camps not afraid to break some rules.
“Martha never denied talent,” Biles told ESPN in 2020. “That’s one thing I’ll give her. As I was coming up, it was hard to see a successful outcome because you hadn’t seen many gymnasts of the same skin colour as me. I felt like wanting to go to the Olympics was harder. I always just said I wanted to do college gymnastics, but then Gabby [Douglas] won [at the 2012 Olympics], and you’re like, ‘Wow, she looks like me. If she can do it, I can do it.’ That gives you an incentive to do better.”
There are many sportspeople who have been said to change their sport irrevocably. Tiger Woods, for instance, brought more money to golf than the tours could ever previously have imagined. Jim McGuinness is said to have changed how Gaelic football is played in Ireland. Ditto Pep Guardiola in soccer. Venus Williams fought for – and won – equal earnings for female competitors. In a similar list, Billie Jean King, Mia Hamm, Megan Rapinoe would be found – women who worked tirelessly for equality with their male counterparts in terms of attention and reward.
But to actually enter a sport that is broken, its athletes bruised and used – and to transform it from the inside out? To make it healthier, more inclusive, more fun and more entertaining, while also being better than anyone who has ever done it before?
To witness Simone Biles in the gym at the biggest competition there is? Sorry, it is life changing. It is a demonstration of what is possible, being lived out in real life, in real flesh and blood in front of your eyes.
“Simone Biles has always been the queen of gymnastics,” Italy’s Elisa Iorio said after winning a historic silver medal in the team event, behind Biles’ American quintet.
“The way she approaches competition makes you understand you should have fun. She’s a point of reference for all of us,” she continued, confirming my hunch.
“Simone was the first gymnast who dared put a picture of food on Instagram. That feels stupid to even say, but it’s true,” 1988 Olympian Missy Marlowe told ESPN four years ago.
“Simone’s the first one to show pictures of herself out in a social situation, because everyone knows that if you’re not at the gym, you’re supposed to be resting. She was the first one to have a boyfriend in public. She’s broken all the rules by being even a slightly normal person. Up until now, that probably would have gotten a gymnast kicked off the national team or her social media taken away.”
Biles dared to be normal so she could be extraordinary.
And she did it publicly so that everyone around her dared too. Dared to be older; dared to be stronger; dared to have ambition to win despite their colour or creed.
Veteran British gymnast Becky Downie paid tribute to Biles on Instagram last week, calling her the greatest to ever do it.
“It’s been an honour to share the floor over the years with you,” the 32-year-old three-time Olympian said.
“The joy you have brought back to our sport is unmatched…
“Thank you for being you, changing the game for the better and doing it with the biggest smile there is.”
They weren’t just empty words from the double European champion.
In another post on her profile, Downie pokes fun at herself for falling on the uneven bars during a skill that she is so good at, it’s named after her (the first person to perform a skill in competition has it named after them; Biles has five such skills).
“May the odds be never in your favour,” the video caption says. “Biggest final of your career and falling on your OWN skill. Really though… what are the ODDS.”
In the comments underneath, Canadian gymnasts Shallon Olsen chimes in: “It’s okay I fell too girl.”
A mother of a young gymnast added, “Thanks to all the gymnasts that fell or made a mistake – it means I can show my 8-year-old not to be so hard on herself. She can dust herself off and get back up.”
The Karolyis would never.
Gabby Douglas was the changemaker for Biles and in what may be her last Olympic podium, she shared it with two other Black women, a first for gymnastics (although in a reminder that sports administration can always be found to be flawed, this is being re-litigated as I type). Chiles and Biles took a moment to bow to Andrade’s greatness, or in their words, to give her the flowers she deserves.
“[We were] showing good sportsmanship [and] having fun out there because it was the last competition,” Biles explained.
The coaching ticket of Cécile and Laurent Landi had set up the Paris Olympics to be more about Biles than medals. So much so that they initially said no when she first put forward the idea of competing.
“You’ve set expectations for yourself for so long. Let’s just go back in the gym, get in shape and see what happens,” they said, according to her recollection on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“Oh, you’re right. And he was like, let’s not just think about the Olympics right now. Let’s think about maybe getting your skills back, twisting comfortably again doing this.”
To approach the Games differently then, she said she was “just working on my mind and my body more than I have or continuing to work on my body and my mind”.
“Just like I have the past year and a half and it’s worked. And so to just stay on top of that, it’s exhausting, but like I have to do it. It’s working. I didn’t think therapy was gonna work and it’s working.”
As she went on to win three gold medals and one silver during the meet, Biles continued her therapy sessions, praising her therapist online and in television interviews.
“I think I’ve seen a change, especially in women’s gymnastics. It looks a lot less stressful, from the observations that I’ve made,” her fellow Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan told The Journal when asked about Biles’ influence on the sport’s environment.
“It looks like they’re having fun and the men’s side always looks to have had that fun since I’ve been in the sport, but I think it’s an important point to bring up that Simone always does bring it up and it looks like she has fun out there as well.
“But she has that little spice of competitiveness to her as well and I never want to lose that. You’ve got to have that spice of competitiveness but also enjoy being there, and then that’s the perfect balance.
“It seems like she’s struck it, so well done to her.”
Before heading to Paris, Biles made a conscious decision not to share her goals. But in her final press conference in the city, she said:
“I’ve accomplished way more than in my wildest dreams. Not just at this Olympics, but in the sport.
“A couple years ago, I didn’t think I’d be back here at an Olympic Games. So competing and then walking away with four medals… I’m not mad about it. I’m pretty proud of myself.”
Just months prior, host of Call Her Daddy Alex Cooper had asked want she wanted her legacy to be. Her answer?
“To be an advocate for anything that I’ve been outspoken about – mental health, foster care, ADHD, whatever that is. But also just someone that gave it her all, never gave up, but also had fun and enjoyed her career because I think a lot of times athletes might look back at their career and be like, I wish I had more fun, or I wish I did this differently. But I’m at that age where I don’t really have any more regrets because I’m a little bit older, I’m more mature. Everything I’ve done has been on my time, so I don’t have regrets.”
A job well done.
Written by Sinead O’Carroll and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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