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In mid-January, Le Monde met the most decorated gymnast of all time in Spring, Texas. She is preparing for her Olympics comeback in Paris this summer, after missing out in Tokyo because of the ‘twisties.’
Her name is an irresistible door opener. “Wow! An interview with Simone Biles? I’ll put your application in the rush box!” said the consular officer at the US embassy in Paris. One transatlantic flight later, it was the immigration officer at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, who, upon discovering the reason for our visit, reacted enthusiastically behind his counter window: “Simone? She is our treasure! You’re gonna loooove her!”
The first African-American woman to be crowned US gymnastics champion, in 2013 at the age of 16, Biles has since won seven Olympic medals – including four titles (individual, team, vault and floor) at Rio in 2016 – and 30 world medals, 23 of them gold, including individual all-around titles in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2023. The pocket-sized Texan (1.42 meters) is the most decorated gymnast of all time, regardless of gender, to the point that enlightened observers dub her “The GOAT,” for “The Greatest of All Time,” a status she assumes by sporting a goat’s head on her sequined leotards.
After a break of two years and two days, Biles made a stunning return to competition in August 2023, winning her eighth all-around individual national title in 10 years, and then, in October 2023, her sixth individual world title, in Antwerp, Belgium. On this occasion, she also pulled off a Yurchenko double pike vault, a feat never performed by a woman in competition, which became the fifth skill listed under her name in the International Gymnastics Federation’s Code of Points. All signs that she’s ready for the Paris Olympics, which will be her third in a row.
However, the 2021 Tokyo Games could have been the end of her career. While her dominance and consistency made her the overwhelming favorite in the individual all-around on three of the four events – the uneven bars being her weak point – and should have led Team USA to gold, she withdrew from most events, suffering from “twisties,” a brutal and unpredictable inability to situate herself in space during aerial maneuvers.
