For the past week, USA Gymnastics turned the center of the Target Center floor into what looked like a slacker’s basement.
They installed six overstuffed couches that held backpacks, clothing and slumped teenagers. The floor was strewn with slippers and sweatpants, beneath oversized TVs.
Simone Biles, perhaps the greatest gymnast in history, could have made the U.S. Olympic team without rising from one of those couches. Instead, she overcame a few missteps to dominate the trials.
Biles automatically qualified for the 2024 Olympics by winning the all-around competition, making her, at 27, the oldest woman to represent the U.S. in gymnastics at the Olympics since the 1950s.
“I’m a lot older, I’m more mature,” she said. “I definitely have to take care of recovery mentally and physically. … After Day 1 of trials, I was actually surprised that I could walk.”
If she wins gold in the all-around in Paris, Biles will become the oldest to do so in 72 years. She can also become the oldest American woman to earn an Olympic gymnastics medal in 76 years.
“I feel like success is just what I make it,” Biles said. “I feel like right now I’ve been successful at competing at the Olympic trial and making the Paris team.”
During an interview in the arena after the competition, Biles credited Thursday meetings with her therapist. As she said that word — “therapist” — cheers drowned what followed.
That made the three most popular people in the arena Suni Lee, Biles and Biles’ therapist. It’s a sign of the times, and of better times.
Biles credited “being in a good mental spot” for her performance. “Seeing my therapist every Thursday is kind of religious for me, so that’s why I’m here today,” she said.
She also said she “knew I wasn’t done” after Tokyo and that “I knew I’d be back” for Paris. But she contradicted that statement in her news conference later in the evening, saying, “I never pictured going back to the Olympics after Tokyo.”
In perhaps the most symbolic and touching moment of the week, Biles chatted with Lee after Lee came off the beam during her routine, and the two wound up laughing.
As the dominant gymnast in the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the favorite to dominate in Tokyo before she withdrew for mental health reasons, Biles could have theoretically done nothing more than play hopscotch all week and still made the team.
At what amounted to a combination exhibition and check-in, Biles didn’t require any considerations or asterisks. If this had been a distance running event, she may have lapped a few of her competitors.
In Tokyo, Biles withdrew because of “the twisties,” a dangerous phenomenon that occurs when a gymnast loses their sense of where they are in space.
On Sunday, Biles was back in the stratosphere. She excelled on the vault, scoring a 15.5 even though she stumbled after landing.
When Biles performed on the beam, she, like Lee, fell off, failing to keep her balance after a side aerial. She looked disgusted after that, saying her routine was “so good” until the fall.
Not surprisingly, Biles had admirers young and old in evidence on Sunday. The in-house host introduced a World War II veteran and then asked him to name his favorite athlete. “Simone Biles,” was the answer, prompting Biles to walk over to wave to him.
Also competing for an Olympic berth this week was Joscelyn Roberson. Biles once saw a 9-year-old Roberson executing a backflip with a twist. Biles posted on social media, “some1 help me find this cutie. I wanna meet her, so she could teach me a thing or two.”
Roberson made the team as an alternate.
It was Biles who did the teaching.
After her routinely excellent floor routine, she sat on the top of the steps leading to the platform and breathed heavily, before smiling and accepting congratulations from her teammates.
Later, during an interview on the Target Center floor, Biles was asked about competing to the strains of Taylor Swift’s “…Ready for It?”
Biles said her team communicates with Swift’s team, so the singer may not have been surprised by the song choice.
In terms of the trials, this was a case remindful of a much older tune: “The Song Remains the Same.”
Biles spent the week reminding us that even the greats duel with demons and that, among gymnastics greats, she stands alone.
