This was more than just a vault for Simone Biles. It was the moment she lay to rest the Olympic ghosts of three years ago.
The American took in a deep breath as she stood at the end of a 25-metre runway in Paris on Tuesday, preparing to help her USA team-mates reclaim the women’s gymnastics team title they had lost in Tokyo in a final that Biles started but was unable to complete when the ‘twisties’ struck during her vault.
In front of a packed Bercy Arena, where Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Bill Gates were among those watching, she powered on to the table and twisted off to land firmly on her feet, breaking into a huge smile as the crowd roared.
“After I finished vault I was relieved – I was like ‘woo, there’s no flashbacks’,” Biles, 27, said.
“I did feel a lot of relief and as soon as I landed I knew that we were going to do this.”
And she was right. She and her team-mates went on to win gold by a comfortable margin ahead of Italy and Brazil.
From the moment she landed her vault in the first round, Biles seemed to relax – high-fiving her team-mates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, before, one after another, they delivered a series of accomplished routines.
In Tokyo Biles had been left cheering on the team from the stands while afflicted by the dangerous mental block where gymnasts get lost in the air. It led to her pulling out of four individual finals at a Games where she had been tipped for several gold medals.
She returned to compete in the beam final, taking an emotional bronze, but it was not until now – eight years after she won four gold medals at Rio 2016 – that she could return to the top of the Olympic podium.
“Now that I’m much older, we have so much more experience and we’re out here really having fun and enjoying what we’re doing – so I think it’s just different,” she said when asked about the 2016 and 2024 team golds.
Biles has qualified for another four finals in Paris, with her next medal opportunity coming in Thursday’s all-around final.
Biles back at the top on her terms
After the events in Tokyo, it had looked like we might have seen Biles at her final Olympics.
However, you are not going draw a celebrity crowd and transcend your sport unless you really are something special.
When she returned to gymnastics last summer after a two-year break, it was soon clear that she was still at her best. In fact, you could argue, even better.
She had soon won a sixth world all-around title and showcased some of her most difficult gymnastics, and she had also added a new skill, the Biles II vault – a fifth move to be named after her.
Even coming into these Olympics she submitted a new uneven bars move to the gymnastics federation, meaning she will become the only active gymnast to have eponymous skills on all four apparatus if she performs it here.
The limits she has pushed go beyond anything she lands on the mats.
Her willingness to talk about her mental health in Tokyo opened up conversations about the subject, having delivered a powerful message that personal wellbeing comes above medals.
She has given a detailed account in a recent Netflix documentary about what happened in Tokyo, the pressure of expectation and the impact of being called a “quitter” by some on social media and beyond at the time.
When speaking at a hearing into the Larry Nassar abuse scandal she said the “scars of this horrific abuse” by the former USA team doctor had been an “exceptionally difficult burden” without her family at the pandemic-hit Tokyo Games.
In the documentary she showed viewers the “forbidden Olympic closet” – the cupboard in her spare room where the kits, medals and other items related to those Games are stored. That is where she says she spent a lot of time crying.
She has detailed what she has gone through to get back to the point where she is winning Olympic gold again, saying after the team final that she had “started off with therapy this morning”.
Biles has returned to her sport on her terms.
“Nobody’s forcing me to do it,” she said earlier this year.
The team took the pressure off her by telling her she does not need to compete in every event and she did not speak to reporters after training or qualifying sessions.
These Games are different to Tokyo – her husband is here with her, fans are back in the stands, attitudes to mental health have changed.
And the world’s most decorated gymnast has a new Olympic gold medal.
When does Simone Biles compete next?
Simone Biles has qualified for four more finals in Paris.
She is in the all-around final on Thursday, followed by the vault final on Saturday and the floor and beam finals on Monday.
