Simone Biles’s athletic prowess was never in doubt, but after two dominant performances at the Olympics, the now five-time gold medalist looks poised for a historic comeback. Over the weekend, she gritted her teeth through a left calf injury to deliver a characteristically stellar performance before helping deliver her team to a gold medal during Thursday’s finals — to a Taylor Swift song, no less. Here’s how it all went.
How bad is Simone Biles’s injury?
Per CNN, Biles had been dealing with calf pain in the weeks leading up to her Paris arrival and appeared to re-aggravate the injury during warm-ups on Sunday. She left the floor shortly after a beam run-through, seeming to tell the team’s medic that it “hurts to push off,” and returned soon after with her ankle wrapped. Her coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, told reporters Biles felt “a little pain in her calf” similar to a soreness she’d felt a few weeks earlier. She also seemed to be limping slightly around the facilities and favored her left leg during her floor routine.
How did her comeback performance go?
Injury be damned, Biles managed to deliver a near-flawless beam routine during the qualifying round with a score of 14.733 (the highest on the apparatus thus far) and an all-around score of 59.566, securing her spot in the upcoming all-around finals alongside teammate Sunisa Lee. On the vault, she whipped out a Yurchenko double pike, coming away with a 15.300. She scored a 14.600 on floor and 15.300 on vault — both the best of the day — and cinched a tricky dismount on the uneven bars, getting her 14.433. Her total qualifications score of 59.566 makes her the favorite heading into Thursday’s competition.
How did she do at the team finals?
Biles’s limp was nowhere in sight at Tuesday’s team all-around finals, where she and teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera took home the gold medal. Biles’s floor routine, which closed out the night and clinched the competition for Team USA, was set partially to an instrumental version of Taylor Swift’s “… Ready for It?” This was not the first time she’s pulled that choreo out — after she performed it at the Olympic Trials, Swift tweeted that Biles was, indeed, “ready for it tho.”
@simonebilesowens TASTE GOLDEN ❤️🇺🇸💙
♬ original sound - Satisfying Lips 💋
Which celebrities watched Simone Biles compete live?
As one of the most accomplished gymnasts to walk the earth, Biles, of course, is always one to watch heading into an Olympic event, and celebrities agree. According to the Guardian, Tom Cruise, Snoop Dogg, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Greta Gerwig and Jessica Chastain, the Jonas Brothers, and the now-ubiquitous Anna Wintour were all there on Sunday. At the team finals, Serena Williams, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Hoda Kotbe, and Jason and Kylie Kelce also cheered her on.
Is Biles’s husband, Jonathan Owens, in Paris?
Biles’s husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, has been excused from training camp to watch his wife compete. He landed in time for Tuesday’s team events, where he was seen sitting with Biles’s parents in a “BILES” fan T-shirt and seemingly jotting down notes to keep track of everyone’s scores.
Owens has previously made some ill-advised comments about not knowing who Biles was before they started dating and at one point suggested he was “the catch” in their relationship, so a lot of people were wondering how he’d be supporting her during the Olympics. But Biles has defended Owens and posted on Instagram Stories that she found a lot of the derision “disrespectful to my relationship & my husband.” Either way, it seems Owens is all in — earlier in July, he dedicated a tattoo to Biles and called her “the best to EVER do it” on Instagram while holding a huge cutout of her face. Based on those developments —and the fan tee — it looks like he’s adjusting to life as a wife guy well.
What’s next?
Biles will hopefully continue her winning streak at the individual finals this Thursday. Her presence in Paris is all the more meaningful following her mental-health struggles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, during which she withdrew from the Games due to a condition called the “twisties.” Her return to gymnastics isn’t so much about winning or performing stellar technical routines, but about grit, vulnerability, and resilience. That she may attempt a skill never before done in the history of the Olympics is just the cherry on top.
This post has been updated.