Simone Biles has made history with an incredible comeback after a two-year hiatus, cementing her GOAT status by becoming the most decorated gymnast of all time. Biles competed in the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Belgium where she took home four gold medals bringing her to a total of 37. Geoff Bennett discussed Biles’ return to competition with Christine Brennan of USA Today.
Geoff, I think because of what you just said, all the things she’s had to deal with, being a survivor of the most horrific sexual abuse scandal in sports history, domestic or international, the Larry Nassar horrors, being abused in that way. being someone who, as we know from two years ago, went through the twisties.
That was the getting lost in the air, the mental block and the difficulties that she had, to the point where she had to withdraw from several events at the Tokyo Olympics. Being 26 years old, having lived through all of that, and coming back to have the week of her life athletically in terms of the physical prowess that we know she’s had going all the way back to the Rio Olympics, actually going all the way back 10 years ago to her first World Championship, and the ability to put that all together in a sport that is truly a high-wire act.
You hold to breath at almost every one of those disciplines. And everything she does, being an incredible high-flying act on the floor exercise, of course, the vault that she’s known for, all the other exercises that are just literally a millimeter one way or the other and there’s no medal at all or you’re falling off.
It’s a — it turns out to be something that is — obviously, you can’t come back from. And yet, time and again, Geoff, she was not only good, but she was great, the greatest of all time, proving once again and showing us once again just how great she can be.
